c c „, 

1 SPEECH 



'°*v 






MM. cl^ALLAN, OF KENTUCKY, 

» • 7 



ROPRIETV OF REDUCING THE EXPENSES AND CORRECTING THE ABUSES 



THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 



ASP I 



THE DANGEROUS ADVANCES OF EXECUTIVE POWER UPON THE LIBERTIES 

OF THE PEOPLE, 



IN REPLY TO MR. CAMBRELENG AND MR. FRENCH: 



OEMVEHEi 



i N THE HOUSE OF EEPRliS E N T A T I V E S, 

Tuesday, May 24, 1831 



WASHINGTON: 
OXAL INTELLIGENCER OFFICE. 
836. 



ES3S/ 

M 



SPEECH. 



The fortification bill (No. 305) and the proposition of brought into this Souse. The Committees of Ways and 



retrenchment* offered as an amendment thereto, being be- 
fore the committee — 

Mr. ALLAN said: Mr. Chairman, being in Committee 
of the Whole House on the state of the Union, and the 
grant of the money of the People for the supply of the Go- 
\ eminent, and the proposition for retrenchment which I 
have had the honor to otfer, being the subjects of conside- 
ration, tile conduct of the Government in all its depart- 
ments, as well as the propriety of reducing its expenditure, 
are relevant and proper topics of discussion in this present 
debate. 



The effort that has been made to curtail the freedom of equal certainly 



Means, Foreign Affairs, Military Affairs, Public Lands, 
and the Judiciary, are the principal doors by which every 
question enters this House. On each of these committees 
there are placed three Opposition members and six lor the 
Administration — two for one. Of course the Opposition 
have no voice to bring forward any thing. The majorities 
of these committees decide the fate of all the important 
measures of the session. Whatever they recommend comes 
into the House under the sanction of the Administration, 
and of "the party," and is voted through as a matter of 
course; whatever they report against, is voted down with 



speech, and to exclude amendments from the appropriation 
bills during the present session, is one of the remarkable 
signs of the times. 

From the earliest date of British liberty, free discussion 
was allowed on money bills. The public purse being ill 
the hands of the Commons, was the great principle of 
English liberty. It was the effective engine by which the 
Commons maintained the authority of the People in the 
Government, and restrained the power of the King. The 
supply bills have ever been the field upon which the battles 
between liberty and power have been fought. Yet, in the 
American Republic, when power is thrusting its eager 
hands into the pockets of the People, their Representatives 
are rebuked for resistance, and denounced for the exercise 
of the birthright of every freeman. But as we have al- 
ready bountifully supplied the demands of power with mil- 
lions, we have at length arrived at the point where, by 
common consent, it is agreed to be a fit and proper occasion 
for a full and free expression of opinion on our public af- 
fairs. 

Having on another subject given my views on the sur- 
plus revenue, the national defences, and the course of the 
present Administration, at present, before I proceed to the 
consideration of the plan of retrenchment, 1 will confine 
myselfto a desultory glance at several principles and prac- 
tices, and arguments, which the public good requires should 
be exposed. 

Sir, in self-defence I feel it to be my duty to describe the 
organization of this House, the mode of proceeding, and 
the effect of the previous question. All this is so very dif- 
ferent from legislative proceedings in Kentucky, that it is 
necessary the People there should be made acquainted with 
the course of business here, to enable them to judge whe- 
ther their immediate Representatives have done their duty. 

In this I do not intend to cast any individual censure on 
the Speaker of the House, for he has treated me on all oc- 
casions with courtesy and politeness; in the appointment 
of committees he followed party practice. In the Ken- 
tucky Legislature every member can introduce any propo- 
sition, or get leave to bring in a bill on any proper subject 
he may desire, and can have a committee appointed favor- 
able to the proposition, so that its friends may make it in as 
perfect a form as they can before it is brought before the 
House; and there the yeas and navs can be had, and the 
People be informed how every member voted. This is fair 
legislation; every portion of the People fairly heard, and 
responsibility fairly secured in conformity with the ancient 
reasonable law of parliamentary proceeding. 

Here, by our Rules, no member can get leave to bring in 
a bill; the business of the House has all to pass through 
and receive the sanction of the standing committees. These 
standing committees, appointed at the commencement of 
every session by the Speaker, upon strict, party princi- 
ples, are the channels through which every measure is 



The effect of this party organization of the House pre- 
vents any member of the Opposition from bringing forward 
an original proposition ; and the previous question is used 
so as to prevent direct votes on amendments to bills which 
may be pending. For example, on the other day, when 
the general appropriation bill was before the Committee of 
the Whole, my friend from Virginia (Mr. Mercer) offered 
an amendment to divide the proceeds of the public lands, 
and to limit the cost of the custom-house in the city of New 
York to $500,000. The previous question was called, and 
the amendment cut off, no question being taken on the 
amendment ; the question being, according to our pre- 
posterous Rules, on the passage of the bill. So that, by the 
party organization of the House, and the frequent use of 
the gag law, the previous question, the dominant party can 
not only prevent the minority from getting a fair and direct 
vote, by yeas and nays, but they can so involve their course 
in mystery as to evade responsibility, and " dodge what 
questions" they may not choose to record their votes upon. 

In the Committeeof the Whole on the general appropri- 
ation bill, as the only opportunity of bringing forward the 
measure, I offered the proposition for retrenchment ; but in 
the House, to avoid a direct vote upon it, the previous ques- 
tion was called, and the journal does not show who was 
for and who against it. 

But, sir, that the country may understand the subject, 
I have offered the proposition a second time, and call upon 
the House to take the vote by yeas and nays. And if this 
question is again " dodged" by the previous question, let it 
be distinctly understood that those who vote for the previous 
question are against the reduction of the expenses of the 
Government. 

The effect of these modes of proceeding, to involve the 
course of the members in mystery, and to evade responsibil- 
ity, is manifest from another view of the subject. A party 
has been in power more than seven years; the members of 
which have been professing all the while a desire to amend 
the Constitution, so that members of Congress should be 
rendered ineligible to Executive appointments. They have 
all the time expressed a desire to reduce the expenses of the 
Government. They now have a majority, they say, of 
about forty in this House, and yet they cannot show by 
the journals that they have ever voted for any one of these 
propositions. 

My colleague and friend (Mr. Underwood) brought in, 
early in the session, a resolution presenting all these constitu- 
tional amendments, yet we cannot either get to discuss 
or vote on them. Under the party organization of the 
House and the perverted use of the previous question, it is 
impossible for my colleagues or myself to have discussed and 
voted on the great measures upon which the People, of 
Kentucky desire to seethe action of Congress. 

I will make allusion to another subject characteristic of 
the times. It has become a part of a general scheme to de- 



For this proposition, see page 15. 



lude and mislead the public mind, for " the party" to assume 
that their measures are identified n iili the honor and glory 
of the country; ami every one who dares to oppose any one 
of these plans, however unwise it maybe, isdenouneed as 
an enemy to his country. Lei us see how time and reason 
and experience expose this arrogant folly. 

In the year 1834, all who were not for reprisals ag dm I 
Prance were proclaimed to be enemies to this country. * »n 
the last night of the last session all who refused to vote 
three millions of money, to be used at the .lis. retion of the 
President, and in clear violation of the Constitution, were 
denounced as the alius of France. Now. all the world 
plainly sees that, if reprisals had passed, aim i he money vot- 
ed ( we should now have been in the midst of a French war. 
Ii is now evident to all thai those who prevented n prisals 
and refused to vote the money preserved the peace and 
hiMii.r of the country. 

Among the signal blessings which a gracious Provi- 
dence has showered upon c hi r eon nl ry, none is greater than 
such a national Senate, given at such a time— a body of 
the greatest men the world ever saw congregated in a le- 
gislative hall. Their debates, for the last live years, will 
be read with enthusiasm as long as liberty and genius shall 
live. In future ages they will become a political text-book 
among the friends of constitutional freedom when all tlm 
selfish projects of the present day, for the obtainment of 
money and office, shall have perished in the forgetfulness of 
oblivion. The American Senate will go to posterity with 
the glory of having been the anchor of the vessel of state, 

in the tempest of all the passions unchai I and let loose 

by the ascendency of party violence over the Constitution. 
The whole country has been Idled with the lamentations 
of the exclusive patriots for the loss of the fortification hill 
of the last session ; and, at this session, the following reso- 
lution was proposed : 

"Resolved, That the Pri idenl be requested to cause the Sen- 
ate to be informed of, 1st. The probable amount that would be 
necessary for fortifying the lake, maritime, and gulf homier of 
the United States, and such points of the land frontier as may 
require permanent fordiication. 

And all were denounced as enemies to the country who 
would not agree to pledge the surplus revenue to this ill- 
advised measure; when, lo and behold, the enlightened 
Secretary ot War. by the approbation of the President, in 
his luminous report of the "th ot April, completely demol- 
ishes the whole scheme ; and the friends of an extensive 
plan of new fortifications, who had been so liberal in their 
denunciations of its enemies, were compelled to lace to the 
right-about, a movement which frequent use had made 
easy and familiar in the evolutions ol this Administration. 
On the 21st of March, while the application of the public 
treasure to the erection id' new fortifications was all the rage, 
1 took the responsibility of maintaining the impracticability 
of defending our extensive frontier by fortification ; that 
the svstem hail already been carried too tar; that it would 
lead to a large standing Armj : that the true strength of 
our country was in the hearts of a brave People, and the 
-jvay to insure success in war was to enable them to con- 
centrate 1 1 hi r power wherever danger should approach, by 
means ol team and roads, with the greatest possible celer- 
ity. 1 have the unexpected pleasure of seeing thai every 
position which 1 took is sustained in the report of the Sec- 
retary of War. 

The report of the Secretary has rendered the denuncia- 
tions against the members of the minority for their opposi- 
tion In new fortifications as powerless as time has rendered 
those which were levelled at them for their opposition to 
reprisals and the grant of the three millions. 

It is thus that the opponents of these wd.l and danger- 
ous schemes stand not only justified by experience and 
reason, but they have the honor of the sagacity of having 
foreseen, and the firmness to resist and defeat them in the 
face of power. 

I will notice in this place the systematic attempt made at 
this session to establish two principles in regard to the ap- 
propriation of money which are subversive of the Constitu- 
tion, and upon the success of which depends the ascendency 
of the executive control above that ol the legislative in the 

,!i spo ii,.. n of the public treason — principles that have bees 



contended for from the come . m enient of the Government 
by the advocates of the ex ten inn of Executive power. The 
first of these principles was advanced by the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania (Mr. Sutherland) as the true doctrine 
"of the party." It is this: that the recommendation of 
any of the executive departments of the Government that 
a certain sum of money should be applied to a particular ob- 
ject, is primajacie evidence that the appropriation ought 
to be made, and that the burden of proof is thrown upon 
those who maintain the negative ! ! ! The other principle 
is, that, in making appropriations, Congress should not 
specifically direct the purposes to which the money shall be 
applied, but that the granl should be indefinite, and that it 
should be expended at the discretion of the Executive. 

The gentleman from New York, (Mr. Cvmbiiei.eno,) 
some weeks past, when he made his speech upon the famous 
three million effort on the last night of the last session, 
went back for precedents to justify ami prove that appro- 
priations should be general and not special, to the days .. I 9f 

The Constitution contains the following clause: "No 
' money shall he drawn from the Treasury hut in eonse- 
' quence of appropriations made by law." The People in- 
tended by this clause lo keep the purse-strings in the hands 
of their immediate representatives. But this power had in 
effect been transferred to the Executive, by giving him 
grants of money lo be used at his discretion. 

To correct this great abuse and clear violation of the 
Constitution, Mr. Jefferson, in his very first message to 
Congress after his election to the Presidency, expresses 
himself thus: 

"In our case, too, of the public contributions intrusted to our 
direction, it would be prudent to multiply barriers against their 
dissipation, bj appropriating spcrijk- sums to every specific pui - 
pose susceptible of definition ; by disallowing all applications of 
money varying from the appropriation in objN • ', Dr transcending 
ii in amount ; by reducing the undefined field of contingencies, 
and thereby circumscribing discretionary powers over mi 
and by In inging back to a single department all accountabilities 
for money, where the examination may be prompt, efficacious, 
and uniform." 

This great constitutional principle of specific appropria- 
tions, brought forward by Mr. Jefferson at the commence- 
ment of his Administration, has ever since been regarded 
as the principle, by an adherence to which economy could 
be maintained in the administration of the finances, and 
Executive power restrained within the limits of the Comti- 
ttttion. 

If the principles now sought to be established should 
prevail, that is, that Congress was bound to vote all the 
money demanded by the Departments, unless the negative 
could be proven, and the grants thus procured not to be 
limited by specific appropriation, but left in the broad field 
of Executive discretion, then the provision of the Constitu- 
tion referred to is useless; it would be as well to authorize 
the President to draw on the Treasury for all he wanted, 
and to expend it as he pleased. 

The good old doctrine of the .TelTersonian school is that, 
when the Departments call for appropriations, the burden 
of proof shall be upon them, ami the grant was not lo be 
made unless they convinced Congress, by reason and evi- 
dence, of the propriety of what they had recommended ; 
and when the money was voted, the precise object lo which 
it h..nld he applied was defined, leaving no discretion with 
the President, but making it his duly to see the money was 
expended according to law, and not according to his will. 

1 will proceed to show the boundless extravagance to 
which general grants of money, unguarded by specific ap- 
propriations, according to the recommendation ot Mr. Jef- 
ferson, will lead ; and the wide range of power which they 
place in the hands of the Executive, by enabling him to 
give fat contracts to his friends. It would he impossible, 
in the compass of a speech, to descrtbo all the instances of 
prodigal expenditure by which millions of the public mo- 
nev are annually squandered, by the aid of ambiguous, un- 
defined appropriations, among political partisans; hut I 
will select two cases as specimens, to show the country In 
what manner this Administration disposes of the public 
money confided to its discretion. In the year 1832, an act 
passed authorizing the President of the United States to 



cause to lie built a good anil sufficient bridge across the 
Potomac river, between this city and Alexandria, and the 
sum of 4000,000 dollars was appropriated for that object. 
The act failed to describe the plan of the bridge, or limit 
its cost; it was left to the discretion of the President. The 
letting of the contract was advertised, according to the re- 
quirements of the law, and was taken by Gilson and Ste- 
phens, at the sum of $1,186,625. They were permitted to 
proceed upon the work upon a mere verbal contract; and 
finally failed to execute a written contract, and sold out 
their bargain to a Mr. O. H.Dibble,in whose favor the plan 
of the bridge was changed, and the price raised to ft'1,350,- 
000, without any new advertisement. In the same loose 
manner, be was permitted to proceed upon this great work 
for so large a sum upon a mere verbal understanding. In 
the mean time, Mr. Baldwin, an experienced engineer, re- 
ported that the bridge, upon the plan upon which Mr. 
Dibble was proceeding, would cost the enormous sum of 
$4,791,620. This extraordinary proceeding was arrested 
by the vigilance of my friend from Virginia, (Mr. Mer- 
cer,) who is better informed upon the construction of all 
works of internal improvement than any man in America. 
He had this prodigal contract brought before Congress, 
and exposed its enormity. Congress refused to go on with 
the work, and paid Mr. Dibble for what he had done. 
Since which time, a good and sufficient bridge has been 
completed — for what sum do you suppose, Mr. Chairman, 
after what you have heard? The sum of $113,000. The 
country is indebted mainly to the learned gentleman from 
Virginia for having saved between four and live millions of 
dollars. 

The other case to which I shall refer is the custom-house 
now building in the city ot New York. In the year 1832, the 
same gentleman now at the head of the Ways ami Means, 
reported to this House a bill, as chairman of the Commit- 
tee on Commerce, which passed at that session, and con- 
tains the following section : 

" Be it enacted by the Senate oiul House of Representatives 
of the United .Slates of America in Congress assembled, That 
the Secretary of the Treasury shall he, and he is hereby, autho- 
rized and directed, with the approbation of the President of the 
United States, to purchase a site, and to cause a building to be 
constructed thereon, to be used as a custom-house in tin- port "t' 

New York, and that the sum of two bundled tl sand dollars 

be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in 
the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be applied tojhe 
purposes aforesaid." 

At the lime this bill passed, it attracted no particular no- 
tice. It was not intimated that any further appropriation 
would ever be called |' L ,r; no one doubting that the sum 
of 8200,000 would be amply sufficient to buy a bit and 
build a custom-house. The mi/ design was concealedjrom 
Con "'-ess. And the Secretary, in clear violation of this 
law, under the direction of the President, instead of buying 
a lot where they were cheap, as we are now informed by 
I he fuller of this law he could have done, proceeded 
to make the purchase on the corner of Wall, Nassau, and 
Pine streets in the dearest part of the city, at the price of 
$017,500, anil to contract for a house, as we are now in- 
formed, that would cost a million and a half! It is manl- 
iest that the law above referred to authorized no such ex- 
travagant proceeding as this. It is perfectly certain that if 
this profligate expenditure of public money had been dis- 
closed to Congress, the law never would have passed. 
But the gentleman ( Mr. CaM3r.ei.eng) informs us that lie 
disapproved of the purchase of this extravagant lot, and 
thai one near the water would have done as well, and also 
that he disapproved of the extravagant design of the build- 
ing. Sir, be was the projector of this law. This abuse of 
it took place under his own eye, in bis own city", of which 
he now says he very much disapproved. Now, as the gen- 
tleman has ever since remained a. member of Congress, it is 
a misfortune to the country that he did not, at the next 
session, inform Congress of this flagrant extravagance and 
abuse of the law, of which he now says he so much disap- 
proved. But the gentleman at the next session, in 1S33, 
so far from giving this information, slipped into the general 
appropriation bill the following weighty lines : " for tin' 
erection of a custom bouse at New York, ©300,000." 



Mark the phraseology. Not in addition to a former appro- 
priation, not to finish the custom-house ; but it is for a 
custom bouse. And this year, again, the gentleman has 
got through the general appropriation bill with an appro- 
priation of 8300,000 more, and the yeas and nays prevented 
on it by the gentleman's own vote for the previous ques- 
tion. So that already the enormous sum of eight hundred 
thousand dollars has been appropriated for this house, and 
the basement-story is not yet done. And after all this, the 
gentleman makes an effort to throw the whole blame on a 
former Secretary of the Treasury, who made a contract, as 
he states, for a bouse that would have cost a million and a 
half, but that the present Secretary of the Treasury, more 
economically given, had beento New York, and had adopt- 
ed a new plan to curtail the extravagance of the first. It 
seems that the duty of defending the Administration is 
confined to the persons who happen to be in at the lime. 
Here is a generous effort to throw the blame on an absent 
gentleman, who is out of office, and to eulogize the econo- 
my of the present Secretary at bis expense. 

[Here Mr. Cambrei.eng rose to explain, and said that 
he was surprised at the imputation of a design to assail the 
former Secretary; that he had several times explained, and 
he could only account for the observations of the gentle- 
man from Kentucky, by supposing he was absent when he 
had given the explanations] 

Mr. Allan proceeded. Sir, the gentleman is mistaken 
in supposing that I was absent ; I was present, and heard 
every word he uttered, and have a perfect recollection of 
all that he said. Sir, I have no intention of cither assail- 
ing the gentleman's motives or of accusing him of assailing 
the motives of the former Secretary of the Treasury. 
With motives I have nothing to do, my business is with 
facts ; and although I intend to make a very free and full 
commentary upon what the gentleman has said and done 
in this House, yet my duty in this respect shall nut be 
exercised in a spirit of personal unkindncss, because my 
intercourse with the gentleman has been characterized with 
politeness on his part. But the influential position which 
the gentleman's party has assigned him in this House, and 
the control which he is thereby enabled to exercise over 
public measures in which my constituents have a deep in- 
terest, impose on me the duty of commenting freely and 
fully upon his course. The gentleman did certainly say 
that the former Secretary had agreed to an extravagant 
plan that would have cost a million and a half, of which 
he disapproved, and that the present Secretary had reduced 
the plan to a proper scale of economy. I thought this a 
very strange account of the matter, that two Secretaries 
should come into conflict upon so important a subject, as 
we have been informed in a State paper that the Secretary 
of the Treasury was a mere instrument of the President ; 
neither of the Secretaries, of course, bad any thing to do 
but to execute the orders of the President. I wrote to the 
present Secretary, Mr. Woodbury, on the subject, and so 
far from claiming the credit of having altered the plan of 
the custom bouse, he did not even know either what 
the plan was, or what the cost of the building would be, 
and promised to write to New York and procure the infor- 
mation which I desired, and which he did, and the two 
following letters will explain the subject: 

Treasury Department, Aprit 28, 1836. 
Sir : As promised in my letter el' the 23d instant, I new have 
the honoi totransmitherewit.il a copy of a report made to me, 
under date of the 2Gth instant, by the acting commissioner of 
the New York custom-house, containing lie- remainder of the 
information respecting the new custom-house building, a kid 
fir in your letterof the 22(1 of the present month. 
It is deemed proper to add that the contracts referred to by 

the ' mi- inner arc.-fbr the following purposes, to wit : 1st. 

For the supply of all the cut marble necessary fir lie- comple- 
tion of the basement story, amounting to $67,500. 2d. For the 
supply of all the cut marble necessary for the superstructure 
above the basement story, together with the shafts for i he co- 
lumn-, $281,585. 

I have the honor to he, very re ipectfullv, your obed't serv't 
LEVT'WOODBl B '. 
Secretary of do- Ti ensury 
Hon. Chilton Allan, 

Hon rot' Representatives, Washington. 



Office Commj sios fob Building Ci stom-House, 
New 1 ork, April 28, 1836. 

Stn : Yours of the 23d hist, was received yesterday, in re- 
ply to your inquiries — " 1st. Whal isthe length] breadth, and 
h.-ight ofthe now custom- house '" 

The length is 185 feet, exclusive of buttresses and steps on 
ci. Ii from ; the breadth 90 feet ; and the height, from basemen), 
floor to top of the eave, 53 feel ; i" the top ofthe roof 68 feet. 

"2d. What will be the nninl.fr and cost of the marble co- 
lumns for the support and decora'tion of said building '.'" 

Then* are sixteen doric columns for the pprtic -, sixteen Co- 
rinthian columns for the greal hall or rotundo, twenty-two doric 
columns in the basement, and eighteen doric columns in the 
room ofthe first, si cond, and third floors ; the prices of which 
it is now impossible M designate, as in t Sic contracts entered 
into, (copies of which are with the Department,) the it. ms, or 
parts, were not specified, but put down in gross ; i hey ran, how- 
ever, be obtained from the contractors. The columns cannot be 
separated, or their receipt declined ; the cent ran is for the whole 
together, and they are mostly worked and ready foi delivery. 

"3d. What will be the cost ofthe building? 

The superintendent's estimate in November last, forwarded to 
you, was, for the whole cost of the building, seven hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars ; and he is still fully persuaded that this 
Bum will complete the whole. It is the genera] opiniou here, 
that, by the contracts already made, the Government receive the 
marble for $150,000 less than it could now be contracted for and 
furnished. The building cannot he materially altered without 
losing the great advantages of these contracts ; the building is 
now progressing rapidly, and the entire appropriation of$30O,000 
will absolutely be necessary. 

lam, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WALTER BOWNE, 
Commissioner, &c. 

The Hon. Levi Woodbury, 

Secretary ofthe Treasury, Washington. 

It has turned out as I anticipated — that there could he 
no conflict between two Secretaries acting under the or- 
ders of the same President. The lot for this House cost 
$217,500 ; the marble S348,585. There is no general con- 
tract ; the cost is not limited. The work is progressing at 
thi> discretion of the architect ; he makes out the annual 
estimates; and sent, here the demand at this session for 
$300,000 more. He is the only person who appears to 
be informed on the subject. Simply upon the act of Con- 
gress of 1830, appropriating $'200,000 to buy a lot and 
build a custom-house, the Executive, in the exercise of 
his discretion, has determined to build a house in the city 
of New York, which shall astonish and excite admiration 
by its extent and magnificence, and which shall be a 
splendid monument of the arts, to adorn and beautify the 
great commercial metropolis. This house is merely for 
the preservation of the books and the accommodation of 
the clerks and officers of the customs. A plain house near 
the water, where the lots are cheap, could have been 
built for the original appropriation of $200,000. But we 
now sec a house progressing, made of such huge blocks of 
marble as to require thirty yoke of oxen to haul a single 
piece. The People can learn from these two cases of the 
bridge and the custom-house how their affairs are ma- 
naged ; how power seeks every- occasion to extend its pa- 
tronage, and provide profitable contracts for numerous de- 
pendents. They will see that their money is thrown out 
broadcast, as profusely as if it were as plenty as sea water. 

In private life it is a sale maxim to count the cost before 
you begin to build a house ; but here a house is under- 
taken without defining the plan or fixing the price, and 
the commissioners paid a premium for the amount which 
they spend. 

I will close my remarks on this branch of the subject, by 
placing the Potomac bridge and the New York custom- 
house by the side of a sentence in the Inaugural Address 
of the President, of the -1th of March, 1829. He says: 

" The management of the jinblic revenue — that searching 
operation in all Governments — is among the most delicate and 
important trusts in ours ; and it will, of course, demand no in- 
considerable share of my official solicitude*. Under every as- 
pect in which it can he considered, it would appear that advan- 
tage urn t result from the observance of a strict and faithful eco- 
nomy." 

Sir, when you consider the effect of this "searching 



operation" upon the bridge and the custom-noose, you 

cannot wonder that the. same kind of operation has made 
the expenses of this Administration swell forty-five mil- 
lions of dollars more than the preceding eight years. — 
This " searching operation" increases in energy as it pro- 
gresses, and will, from present indications, very soon reach 
the very bottom ofthe Treasury. Between twenty and thir- 
ty millions have already been appropriated at this session. 
In my former calculation 1 took the Secretary's estimates for 
1836 at twenty-three millions of dollars, which were made 
in view of a French war. Now I have but little doubt 
that the appropriations of this session will exceed the esti- 
mates of the Secretary at least twelve millions -, if so, the 
excess of expenditure of this Administration over the pre- 
vious eight years will be over fifty-seven millions. 

It is very true this "searching operation" lias demand- 
ed "no inconsiderable share of the official solicitude oj this 
Administration ;" and if it has not been conducted exact- 
ly in accordance with the former understanding of" a strict 
and faithful economy" yet a strict and faithful regard has 
been had to (he spoils principle. No doubt the honorable 
gentleman from the city of New York thinks the cost of 
this custom house a small matter. When we were on the 
Navy bill, he sneeringly said the pitiful sum of $000,000 
was game too small to be worthy of the attention of the 
gentleman from Tennessee, (Mr. En.;..) This is all very 
natural: our minds are formed by the circumstances 
around us. The gentleman has been long accustomed 
to see millions of Ihe national treasure poured out in his 
State and city. His constituents now have the use of 
more than twelve millions of the public money without in- 
terest, a million to build a custom-house. Under these 
circumstances, it does not surprise me that the gentleman 
should have large ideas; and that, being so much used to 
millions, he should have no patience in counting mere 
thousands. 

I do not know how it is with the gentleman from Ten- 
nessee, (Mr. Bei.i.,) as he resides at Nashville, within the 
limits ofthe Constitution, but I will undertake to say that 
the gentleman from the same State (Mr. Peyton) would 
think the sum of $600,000 was game well worthy of his at- 
tention, if he could get it to improve the Cumberland river 
above the upper boundary ofthe Constitution. 

The power ofthe House of Representatives is fast wast- 
ing away to nothing under another alarming innovation, 
in regard to the appropriation of money. A demand upon 
the Treasury for a large sum of money was heretofore 
deemed an affair of sufficient consequence to be brought be- 
fore Congress by a message from the President ofthe Unit- 
ed States, and to be referred by the House to a standing 
committee for investigation. Now, Ihe irregular practice 
has grown up of the heads ofthe Departments, instead of 
the President, to call upon a committee of the House, in- 
stead ofthe House, for appropriations. Under this new prac- 
tice, and at this session, we have seen millions voted away 
upon a letter passing between the Departments and the 
committees. I was surprised at the gentleman from North 
Carolina, (Mr. Speight.) who, in general, is so correct 
as to the rules of proceeding, when he asserted that this 
practice had existed from the commencement of the Go- 
vernment. 1 deny that any committee has aright to delib- 
erate, or report upon any subject that has not been referred 
to it by the House. The committees derive all their powers 
from the House, and the range of their deliberations is con- 
fined to such subjects as the House has referred to them. I 
deny their right to receive a communication from any source 
whatever, of original propositions except from the House. 
They have a right, and it is the practice for the Depart- 
ments to prepare estimates and statements for the commit- 
tees explanatory of subjects which have been referred to them 
by the House. .And it is this usage that has misled the 
gentleman from North Carolina. Whenever the design of 
raising armies and appropriating money originated in the 
Executive Department, such design was always, until of 
late years, brought before this House upon the responsibili- 
ty ofthe President, and it is the right of every representa- 
tive to vole upon its reference. But our present chairman 
ofthe Ways and Means not only receives notes from the 
Executive Departments calling foi armies, and millions, but 



whenever he determines that any of these notes are not pro- 
perly directed to his committee, he takes the responsibility, 
without consulting the House, to say which of the other 
committees they shall go to. In this informal mode of pro- 
ceeding, we nave seen millions appropriated in the compass 
of a few hours, under a single breeze of excitement. 

At this iangerous innovation, the honest indignation of 
the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Jarvis) rose above party, 
and he boldly and fearlessly denounced this practice as re- 
ducing this House to the condition of an old French Parlia- 
ment, whose office it was to enregister the decrees of the 
King. The whole of the improvements of the country, the 
fortifications, breakwaters, harbors, &c. &c.are progressing; 
under such vague and general estimates, under such inde- 
finite legislation, power is left in the uncircumscribed 
field of discretion, to multiply and extend patronage at 
pleasure. 

Sir, on the subject of fortifications a brief statement will 
show the wild, wasteful, prodigal spirit, which is now, with 
an unsparing hand, scattering the public treasure to the 
winds — a spirit that proclaims that it would be better to 
scourge our land with the devastations of war than to un- 
loose the grip of federal power upon any portion of the 
contents of the treasury. The average amount of the an- 
nual appropriations for fortifications upon thcsettled policy 
of the country since the year 1816, is within a fraction of 
$700,000. The estimates sent in ftom the proper depart- 
ment for the year 1835, when it was said there was danger 
of a French war, were for the sum of $130 ,000. The esti- 
mates for 1836, in view of a French war, for fortifications, be- 
ing for two years, the bill for 1835 not having passed, were 
for the sum of 81,670,000. And now, when the French war 
has gone by, and it has been determined to make war on 
the. treasury, to keep the People out of any share of the 
surplus, what do we behold! Three bills depend 
ing before this House ; the one now under consideration 
for the sum of $3,772,058, and the two bills reported from 
the Committee on Military Affairs for new fortifications, 
for the sum of $2, 503.800 more, making, in all, the sum of 
56,225,858! The sum proposed now to be appropriated 
at this session is nearly half as much as has been appro- 
priated for fortifications for the last twenty years. 

The average annual amount for the naval service here- 
tofore has been a fraction less than three and a half mil- 
lions. The annual naval bill of this session which has 
passed this House is for 86,235,307 00. From the above 
indications, it is evident that federal power, intrenched in 
the strong ramparts of the treasury, is determined there to 
make its stand, until it triumphs in the battle of the suc- 
cession, or expends every dollar in that i onflict. 

Sir, I disagree with my colleague in lire warm approba- 
tion which he has expressed for the Fortification bill now 
before you. It is without example forits prodigal extrava- 
gance; and unnecessary, because the enormous amount 
cannot be expended during the year. 

During the year 1831, when labor was comparatively 
cheap and easy to be procured, only th» sum of $475,617 
could be expended out of the appropriation of$870,594 for 
fortifications. 

Of the Fortification bill of this session $700,000 is for 
arming the fortifications. The annual appropriation herc- 
tofore for this last object was $100,000. 

There is in the Army bill of tins year the sum of $200,000 
for the armament of the fortifications, which has alreadj pas i- 
cd ; and the amendment now pending, and to which my col- 
league has pledged his support, is for $700,000 more, mak- 
ing in all $900,000, in [dace of the $100,000 heretofore an- 
nually applied to this purpose. I do not see the necessity 
of making this appropriation nine-fold more than has ever 
been required heretofore, even by this Administration. As 
all former experience has proven the impracticability of ex- 
pending the sums demanded at this session upon tile pub- 
lic works in the year, there can lie no other object in (lie 
extravagant appropriations proposed, than to make such a 
disposition of the public money as to defeat the Land bill. 
Sir, why are you about to depart from all former usage at 
this particular time'? Why signalize the year 1836 with a 
prodigality that will swell the expenses of the Government 
millions beyond even the excesses of the last seven years ? 



Is it possible that Congress will swing the doors of the 
treasury wide open, and pour out the public money agreea- 
bly to the new demands of power at the approach of a 
presidential election 1 For the Army, Navy, and fortifica- 
tions, nearly ten millions are demanded for this year more 
than the last. 

The genlleman from New York (Mr. C.imerei.kng) 
gave us notice several times (hat he intended (o speak up- 
on the surplus revenue and expenditure. I was anxious 
to hear him on these subjects, for 1 supposed he would 
avail himself of the occasion to explain to the country why 
he had delayed so long to bring forward a bill for retrench- 
ing the expenses of the Government and the number of 
Federal offices, agreeably to his famous report of 1828, 
upon the adoption of which he and his friends then 
thought, or professed to think, that the very salvation of the 
country depended. But when the gentleman came to 
speak.be remembered to forget his pledge of retrenchment, 
which is now eight years old. He must be excused ; he 
has been so busily engaged during this session in preparing 
bills to increase the number of offices and the salaries in 
all the Executive Departments, that he has not had time to 
explain the reasons of his failure to comply with his re- 
trenchment pledge. 

He commenced his speech by showing that if the Presi- 
dent's wise and just recommendation in 1829, to give the 
public domain to the new States, in whose boundaries it_ 
was situated, bad been complied with, we should not now 
have been troubled with a surplus revenue. The public 
domain was purchased by the blood and treasure of all the 
States for the common use and benefit of all. Virginia 
conveyed her vast possessions to the United States for the 
benefit of all the States, herself included : and yet the 
gentleman contends it would be just towards Virginia ami 
the oilier Stales for Congress to take the common property 
from all the States, and divide it among .a few of them. 
This agrarian scheme, prostrating as it does every idea of 
justice and policy, the gentleman knows lull well will nev- 
er be adopted. But the delusion has answered the purpose 
for some time, and may a little while longer of raising ex- 
pectations in the new States which they will never realize, 
and of casting their political influence in the scale I hat holds 
out the promise. The idea of robbing one State of its proper- 
ty to bestowit on another, had its origin in political designs, 
and will end in political designs ; for such a scheme can 
never succeed unless the people become deranged. It will 
turn out like the promise of retrenchment and reform. The 
plain English of both promises was artifices to net votes 
and political influence. 

The gentleman next proceeded to denounce the legisla- 
tion of 1816, which has paid off the national debt, and fill- 
ed the Treasury to overflowing, and stoutly maintained that 
if the public money was divided, it would corrupt the 
States! The honorable gentleman seems to have all sorts 
of horrors at the idea of the corruption which the use 
of their own money would spread among the People; but 
the gentleman has no fears that the public money will cor- 
rupt the officers of the Executive Government, wdio now 
have it in their bands against law, and arousing it in vio- 
lation of law. There is no danger of its corrupting the pet 
banks, and brokers and stock-jobbers of New York, who 
now have more than twelve millions of the People's money 
without interest. There is no danger that they will cither 
use this money in political bribery, or for the unholy pur- 
pose of grinding the poor and needy. There is no danger 
of millions of this money being loaned to political favorites 
to speculate in Indian reservations. There is no danger 
that forty millions of public money thus used will transfer 
the property of the country into a few hands, and build up 
a lordly aristocracy among us. There is no danger that 
the present operations of the Federal Treasury will make a 
single city the mistress of the commercial operations of the 
whole country, and subject every portion of the. Union to 
enormous exactions in the forms of discounts and exchanges. 
There is no danger that the labor of the People will have 
to pay tribute in the brokers' shops in this ingulfing 
commercial emporium. No, sir, the honorable genlle- 
man apprehends no danger from any use of the public 
money except its division among the People, to whom it 



6 



belong , -i ml there he thinks it would spread universal cor- 
ruption. 

To save the democracy from corruption, the gentloman, 
with iln' ino-,1 disinterested views in Ike world, holds on to 
tin' surplus revenue with the grip ot" death; he will keep it 
snugly in New York. And here, sir, I will notice one 
instance of the use of a portion of the public money 
in that city. The Manhattan Bank, which was sinug- 
glcd into existence by fraud, has a perpetual charter; 
of the stock an English nobleman owns over six hundred 
thousand dollars. This bank held on the 1st of February 
$3,067,000 of the People's money on deposite, which, at le- 
gal interest, produces>421 1,690 annually ; of which the Mar- 
quis of Carmarthen receives $70,000 for his share of the 
spoils. And this is done for the very laudable purpose of 
keeping the money from corrupting the People. A few 
years ago we were informed by the gentleman and his 
friends that it was very improper to let foreigners hold 
Stock in the United States Bank, although they paid the 
Government a large bonus for the privilege. Now we are 
informed by the same gentleman that it is very proper that 
foreigners should hold stock in this pet bank, without pay- 
ing any bonus, and have the use of the money of the People 
of this country gratis, in the bargain. 

After the honorable gentleman had shown and condemn- 
ed the means by which the surplus in the Treasury had 
been produced, and shown how its division would corrupt 
the States, he straightway denied that we would have any 
surplus whatever to divide, lie fell to work on the Trea- 
sury, and soon had it bankrupt. The forty millions disap- 
peared under the operation as fast as the number of Fal- 
si ill's assailants in Kendal green. 

I will give a specimen or two of how the gentleman got 
clear of the surplus. In the first place, he stood up here, in 
presence of the assembled representatives of the. People, 
ami contended with a grave face that the seven millions of 
stock which the Government owns in the United States 
Bank was not safe, and that, in reckoning our means, we 
ought not to count that fund ! ! ! So the honorable gentle- 
man strikes seven millions out of the account. He next 
strikes out five millions to pay for the Florida war with a 
few hundred Indians. This is more than twice as much 
as was expended in all the Indian wars of the West from 
1771 to 171(5. And then the gentleman took out ten mil- 
lions to pay for a war that is to occur hereafter, but did not 
tell us where. But, after getting clear of $22,000,000, there 
was still a large surplus on his hands, which be did not 
know what to do with, when bis friend and colleague (Mr. 
Gii.i.ktt) Hew to his assistance with a scheme to spend 
$22,000,000 more, to buy muskets for the militia. [Mr. 
Gii.i.ktt rose and said that be did not propose to lake that 
sum ; that he had said it would require that amount to arm 
the whole militia, but that his proposition only extended to 
a part. | Sir, I am glad to hear the gentleman does not 
want the whole sum now. These instances will show how 
the Treasury was to be emptied. From the gentleman's 
assertion, that there will be no surplus in the Treasury, I 
will appeal to official documents. In my statement on the 
21st of March last, as to the amount of the public funds, I 
referred to the returns from the Treasury which had then 
come in, and I did not include the bank sloek. By subse- 
quent reports from the Secretary, it appears that there are 
now in the. Treasury $38,000,000. The Government stock 
in the Bank of the United States is worth 88,000,000. 
Estimated receipts to 1st January next, $24,000,000, mak- 
ing, in the aggregate, $80,000,000. Admit that the extra- 
vagant spirit that now bears rule should at this session 
swell the appropriations to the unexampled sum of $35,000,- 
(100, still there will he in the Treasury, on the 1st of Janu- 
ary next, $45,000,000, allowing that there will be in the 
Treasury at that time $10,000,000 of unexpended balances. 
Now I should like the gentleman to descend from the airy 
region of imagination, and show any error in this calcula- 
tion. 

In prosecuting hostilities against the Treasury, the gen- 
tleman makes a most vigilant war minister. Whenever he 
wants a large sum of money, he forthwith waxes exceed- 
ingly valiant, and becomes warlike; but, to do him justice, 
during almost the whole of last session he was as civil and 



as peaceable a gentleman as any one could wish to liv. , 
and only a few days before the close of the session, aa 
chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, be made 
the most sensible speech lever beard him make, and as 
sensible a one as I ever heard any one make. It was short, 
and to the point; both very rare merits in this Hall, 

The venerable and learned gentleman from Massachu- 
setts (Mr. Adams,) called upon him to know why he had 
not made a report upon our relations with France. I re- 
member the identical words of the reply, for they struck 
me at the time. The gentleman rose and said, " as wc in- 
tendto do nothing, we think it prudent to smj nothing." I 
admired the excellence of this speech, because it is not un- 
common in the world to hear men play the braggart, and 
gasconade, and talk big, just in proportion as they intend 
to do nothing. But notwithstanding this prudent, pacific 
speech, on the very next night the gentleman fell so vio- 
Ient'y into one of his belligerent ways, that it broke out in 
a peremptory demand for three millions of money, and he 
became so moody because he could not get the whole sum, 
that, he would not have a part, and exhorted his friends 
not to answer to their names when they were called, to 
prevent a quorum from voting, to enable him to withhold 
from the House the report of the committee of conference. 
I was present to the last hour of that long-to-be-remember- 
ed night session, and confess that 1 was astonished to hear 
the gentleman call upon his friends not to vole after mid- 
night, knowing that the gentleman had never on any 
former occasion refused to vote himself after midnight; and 
knowing, as I do, that it is his opinion that the Congress 
docs not necessarily end on the 3d ot March at midnight. 
I will not dwell upon what occurred at the last session, but 
return to this. During the last winter, when that gentle- 
man desired to make heavy pulls on the Treasury, he 
would take into his head that Admiral Mackau was hover- 
ing on the coast, and sometimes seemed to think that his 
guns were within point-blank shot of the Capitol. 

Since the nautical evolutions of the Gallic Admiral have 
ceased to float in the visions of the gentleman's fervid im- 
agination, his pugnacious apprehensions have worked 
around to an opposite direction, and one ominous sweep of 
bis linger from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico por- 
tended unnumbered direful wars, in some one of which it 
would he necessary to spend ten millions of dollars. In 
this brief manner the honorable gentleman disencumbered 
the land bill of nearly one-half of its contents. The gen- 
tleman tells us boldly that a war would do the country less 
injury than the division of the surplus treasure among the 

Slates. 

Sir, that it was the deliberate intention at first to make 
the whole Union tributary to New York, becomes every 
day more and more evident. As early as the 18th of Oc- 
tober, 1833, the agent of the Government appointed to se- 
lect the deposite banks wrote to a person in New York I hat, 
under the new system, " it (the Branch ofthe United States 
'Bank) will hare lo becomethe collector •of 'specie from every 
1 quarter qf the Union , for the ultimate use of your bunk 
' and others irho may u'anl it in New York" Yes, sir, 
here is a project to drain every part of the Union of specie 
for the benefit ot' New York. We now see in completion 
of this scheme twelve millions of the People's money de- 
posited in one city, and the whole Western country con- 
stantly drained to keep the public funds concentrated at 
this point, and we hear the member from that city proclaim- 
ing that it would be belter to involve the country in war, 
than to have this New York monopoly broken up; the 
monopoly by which the .specie from all parts of the Union, 
as well as the public revenue, is conveyed to this favored 
place. 

The great contest of the present day is, whether the pub- 
lic domain shall be divided among the States to strengthen 
the defences of liberty, or retained in the bands of federal 
power, to be divided out as spoils in the form of jobs, con- 
tracts, and salaries, to secure political influence. The pro- 
ceeds ofthe sales of the thousand millions of acres of the 
public land, devoted lo the augmentation of federal patron- 
age, will insure the ultimate triumph of executive and 
aristocratic power over the liberty of the country. Hence 
power holds on to the public money and the public lands. 



Hence the declaration that war would be preferable to a 
division of the public money among the States. Hence 
the presumptuous declaration of the office-holders while 
they are rioting upon the public money which they bold 
in violation of law, thai if they were forced to give it up 
it would corrupt the People. Hence the succession of va- 
rying schemes which have passed before us since the first 
Monday of December, with a view to engage public atten- 
tion, so that the session might be wasted in the considera- 
tion of a number ol repugnant plans ; that nothing should 
be done, and Congress adjourn and leave the public money 
in a position to do the political work of " the party." 

Three projects were proposed by three eminent politi- 
cians, all high in the confidence of power, members of the 
other branch of the Legislature. One proposed to lay out 
the surplus public money in the purchase of slocks ! An- 
other reported a scheme of distributing the public funds 
among railroad companies, for the purpose of having the 
mail carried. While another proposed to get rid of the 
surplus by building forts. Now, the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Cambreleng) and his party, in the faccof their 
own admissions, dining the whole session, in the lace ol 
their own projects of disposing of the surplus revenue, turn 
round and deny that there will be any surplus to divide! 
Emboldened by success, the party now confidently imagine 
that they can pass off the most palpable inconsistencies 
upon public credulity, under cover of the President's popu- 
larity. It may be slow, hut a day of accountability will come. 

But, sir, there is one view stronger than all others, to 
show the inconsistency of those who are engaged in the 
project of keeping (he People out. of the use of their money. 
On the one. hand, we are told that the whole ought lobe 
appropriated lor the use of the General Government ; and, 
on the other hand, we are told, if it lie appropriated for the 
use of the States, it will break all the hanks. Yes, sir, ac- 
cording to tie.,.' gentlemen, if yon grant all your money for 
federal purposes, the pet hanks can pay you with ease; but 
if you make the grant for the use of the Stales, they will all 
blow up ! 

Sir, I will here lake leave of the gentleman from New 
York, and pay my respects to my honorable colleague, (Mr. 
French,) who has thought proper to honor me by making 
almost the whole of his very elaborate speech an answer to 
one of mine delivered more than two months ago. 1 will 
not complain of his going out of his way and against the 
Rules of the House, on one subject, to answer an argu- 
ment made on another. Cut I do not see the necessity the 
gentleman was under to answer iny speech, inasmuch as 
after two months' deliberation he has not ventured to deny 
a material fact, or to controvert a principle maintained by 
me. That the gentlema"n should have selected me out of 
all I he members of the House to make his speech at, is a 
little remarkable, considering the long and uninterrupted 
friendship which be has informed the House has suU-ir-t . id 
between us, and considering, also, that the gentleman 
stands pledged to his constituents to support the same mea- 
sures that 1 do to mine. ( fur districts adjoin, and we re- 
present people nni only having precisely the same interests, 
but agreeing perfectly in the measures which should sus- 
tain their interests. 1 do not know that my colleague and 
myself differ on any question of national policy. We agree 
that a national bank is constitutional, and conducive to 
the preservation of a sound currency. We agree in the 
constitutionality ami expediency of works of internal im- 
provement. We both believe that roads could be made in 
Kentucky of a national character, as well as in the other 
States. We both believe the Constitution is in force above 
as well as below custom-houses. He believes, as I do, that 
the proceeds of the public lands ought to be divided among 
the States. We both agree that the condition of the pub- 
lic money ought to be examined into by Congress before 
the adjournment. Thus situated, being old friends, sub- 
stantially representing the same people, and agreeing as to 
all the great measures depending before Congress, I had 
cherished the hope that the gentleman would have stood 
side by side with me, and shoulder to shoulder, in pressing 
these great measures, in which our constituents have so 
deep an interest, through the House. 

That the gentleman should have assumed an attitude of 



opposition lo me, (in a kind manner, it is true,) is among 
the frangcevenfs of these strange times; not because we 
differ in principle ; not because 1 have made any argument 
against the interest of the country; but because, as he_ 
says, I have opposed " his party," and he, being one of 
" the party," is, in self-defence, hound to answer me. His 
defence is" not of the Constitution, not of the great princi- 
ples of public policy called for by our constituent:., for here 
we walk together and are agreed. No, the gentleman en- 
tered the lists as the champion ol" his " party." My friend 
is an apt scholar, and has very soon learned ihc fashion at 
the metropolis. He quickly ascertained that no matter 
what measures he advocated, no odds what principles be 
professed, he would be taken into full communion and fel- 
lowship, provided he would defend the parly anil vote for 
the successor. He informed the House that he intended lo 
leave his posterity in Kentucky, and that he loved Ken- 
tucky better than any place in the world; no doubt this is 
true,' vet 1 could wish the gentleman had a different way 
of showing his love. He stands here, from day today, and 
sees " the party" contriving schemes of extravagance to 
squander the public money, with a view to deprive the 
People of the use of any portion of" it ; yet he is as meek 
and as gentle as a lamb ; his Kentucky blood is not in the 
slightest degree agitated at those attempts to crush the rights 
of his constituents. 

The other day, in this present debate, be beard the gen- 
tleman from New York (Mr. Cambreleng) contending 
that if the money was divided, it would corrupt the People. 
This daring affront upon the sovereign People did nol fire 
my friend with indignation, and bring him to his feel to 
vindicate his constituents from the aspersion. No: that 
v . no attack upon the party. The honorable gentleman 
had to reserve his strength to lay il out against a Ken 
tuckianwho was fighting bj hi side for the measures which 
\ieprcft ed to advocate. After a full examination of all 
the documents, my friend informed the committee that we 
had a large surplus in the Treasury— enough todivideoyer 
twenty iiullions among the Slates; yet ho listened with 
perfect composure to the gentleman from New York when 
hew;,, boldly asserting, in the face of figures and facts, 
that there was no surplus in the Treasury. Yet the gen- 
tleman did nol feel it to he his duty to protest against a 
slatemenf which he knew lobe unfounded, and which was 
made with a view to defeat the just claims of his constitu- 
ent., in their share of the surplus money. The gentleman 
eoul, I look quietly on, and see tin' great measure which he 
was sent here to sustain sinking under this statement. 
Yet the gentleman's love for Kentucky could not induce 
him to niter a. word ol remonstrance; all was reserved lor 
i,,,. riot because I was against his measures, hut again I 
his men. Verily the gentleman docs not love Rome less, 
but he love, < Isesar mote. 

But, after all the gentleman's devotion to his party, after 
his 'rail, ml defence of his party, what return has his party 
made to him? He moved, on three several days, to take 
up and consider Ihc bill which I had the honor to introduce 
for I be hem lit of the old soldiers who fought the battles of 
the Western country. Where was the gentleman's party on 
these occasions 1 They voted him down, and would not 
let him have even one hour to consider the bill. Yet my 
friend went between the tellers, with the gentleman from 
New York, for the previous question on the general appro- 
priation hill, and thereby prevented a motion to strike out 

,iuO for the New York custom-house. While my 

friend is aiding in the completion of a custom-house in the 
cit v of New York, which will cost at least a million of dol- 
lars, his party from New York vote to leave the conquerors 
of the West, in their age and poverty, without a dollar of 
compensation for all their suffering and all their toils. 
Again, my friend was elected especially to get from his party 
an appropriation to make a road from the mouth of Big 
Sandy to Mount Sterling. Where is the gentlemaii's 
party on this subject] They are taking millions for im- 
provements in other States, but they will not grant my 
friend a dollar for his road. He may hope for it, hut I tell 
him now that they do not intend to give him a cent. So 
that my friend is engaged in a most hopeless undertaking. 
He stands by his party, but they will not stand by him. 



8 



ji 



1 1 lliy gentleman had resi ivnl some of Ins eloquence to 
vindicate the rights of his constituents, and to bring his 
party to a sense of justice, he would have stood a much 
better chance of success. My friend occupies the strange 
ground here of supporting the men who oppose every mea- 
sure which the People of Kentucky think connected with 
their deepest interests. 1 do not know what consolation 
the gentleman can take in this unless he, too, thinks it " a 
sufficient glory to serve under such a chic/'." 

I will now proceed, in the same kind and friendly spirit 
manifested to me by the gentleman, to a nearer view of his 
peeeh. He again brings forward the letter of General 
ackson to President Monroe ; in which General Jack- 
son advises Mr. Monroe, " in the selection of the public 
' officers, to avoid party and party feeling. Advises him 
' to ' crush the monster called party spirit.' Tells him that 

the Chief Magistrate of a great and powerful nation 
' should never indulge in party feelings ; that he should 
' be liberal and disinterested, bearing in mind that he acts 
' for the whole, and not for a part, of the community." 
This celebrated letter was written in 1816, and was re- 
published in all the papers of the party throughout Ameri- 
ca, while General Jackson was electioneering for the office 
of Chief Magistrate, as containing the principles and pledges 
upon which he would administer the Government if elect- 
ed. Now, that every principle and pledge in this letter have 
been violated ; that all appointments have been made with 
a view to part; ; that every man in the nation has been 
proscribed who did not belong to the party ; that the mon- 
ster called party spirit, so far from being crushed, has scat- 
tered throughout the land firebrands of discord, and caused 
party passions to blaze with increased fierceness, are truths 
that no one questions. 

My colleague, perhaps, did not observe that all the mem- 
bers of his party, in their speeches, prudently went round 
the Monroe letter ; that upon this subject they were as si- 
lent as the tomb. Perhaps he did not know that for the 
last five years not one was found in this House who ven- 
tured to deny that every principle and pledge in the Mon- 
roe letter had been disregarded in practice. If my colleague 
had observed these things, he would not have taken a post 
which had been abandoned by every one; he would not 
have undertaken the defence of his party upon a point 
where he cannot find a single man that will standby his side. 

But as the gentleman entered the lists, not to sustain the 
rights of his constituents, but to defend his party, he had a 
chance of showing bis zeal, if not his discretion, in taking 
lip the Monroe letter; and if he has not been able to re- 
concile the professions and practices of his party, it has af- 
forded him a notable occasion to show the strength of his 
devotion. But let us see what the gentleman has made of 
the letter. The point in issue was between the profession 
that, in the selection ol public officers, party and party feel- 
ing, should he avoided, and the practice which selected none 
but partisans. In the very first move my friend bears off 
from this issue, and turns toother parts of the letter, upon 
quite differenl subjects, and discourses about Western 
lands and Indians, the public debt, &C. &c. ; but when the 
gentleman got back from his irrelevant digression, as he 
could not prove the consistency between the President's 
profession and practice, ho boldly abandons the profession 
and justifies the practice 

In his advice to Mr. Monroe, General Jackson said: 
" Every thing depends on the selection of your ministry. 
In every selection party and party feelings should beavoid- 
ed." My colleague said, " all statesmen of aWparties eon- 
cede titer ir lit In the President to select from the ranks of his 
political friends the heads of departments. How can tiro 
walk together except they be agreed?" The gentleman's 
tone has altered. In 1828, when he was electioneering for 
the office id' elect >r, he eulogized General Jackson for the 
elevated and liberal principle, that in the selection of the 
brads of departments party should be avoided. Now, he 
says, all statesmen agree that the departments should be 
filled with partisans. That the gentleman, in opposi- 
tion to his own professions in 1828, in the face of the prin- 
ciples of the President, contained in the letter which he 
held in his hand, should say that all statesmen of all par- 
ties agree that cabinet ministers should be partisans, is but 



the beginning of -the difficulty in which he has in 
himself by undertaking to make a whole hog defence of the 
Administration. 

My colleague then proceeded, in direct opposition to what 
he had advanced in the sentence before, to say : " It is 
' true, sir, that all the citizens of the United fstatcs are 
' equally eligible to office, and entitled to equal benefits 
' from the Government ;" and went on to prove that equal 
justice had been done to all parties in the distribution of 
offices. He said that he had inquired of the most intelli- 
gent citizens of this city, and had been informed by them 
that the Opposition have their due proportion of offices 
throughout the Union. I should have been pleased if my 
friend had given the names of his witnesses. I should 
like to know if they arc not office-holders, in the receipt of 
the spoils. 1 very much regret that a statesman from Ken- 
tucky should have been reduced to the necessity of making 
such an inquiry in this city, and of founding a grave argu- 
ment upon the testimony of witnesses whose names he has 
thought proper to keep to himself. Does not every body 
know, as well as the gentleman's nameless witnesses under 
the eaves of the palace, what is the truth on the subject ? 
What is the question 1 It is this : In the appointment of 
public officers, " have characters been selected most con- 
' spicuous for their probity, virtue, capacity, and firmness, 
' without regard to party," agreeably to the solemn pledge 
which had been given, and upon the faith of which the 
present Chief Magistrate was elected 1 Now. my friend 
knows perfectly well, what every one knows, that no indi- 
vidual has been selected to fill office but a devoted partisan ; 
yet he goes into the purlieus of the palace to inquire for in- 
formation. If the gentleman did not know, he ought to 
have consulted the public records; there he would have 
found who had been appointed home and foreign ministers, 
judges of courts, and to all the offices in the nation. But, 
when the gentleman leaves his Washington City testi- 
mony, and relies on his own knowledge, and takes a range 
throughout the land to find instances to prove that, in the 
selection of public officers, no regard has been had to party, 
he has found two signal cases in the Western country, 
both of which occurred in the county in which 1 live. He 
says that Col. Coleby II. Taylor aiid James Pace, Oppo- 
sition men, were appointed postmasters by this disinterest! d 
and liberal Administration. The gentleman has been very 
unfortunate in his allusion to the Post Office patronage in 
Clark county, as will appear in the sequel. I would not 
myself have voluntarily made any allusion to the 6ubj« I ; 
but as it has been introduced for the purpose of proving thai, 
in the appointment of public officers, this Administration 
has had " no regard to party oi party spirit," the whole truth 
must come out. The post office at Col. Taylor's is in the 
county where no Jackson man lives. The office yields 
no profit of consequence. Col. Taylor did not take the 
office with any view of making money ; he is a very obliging 
gentleman, and agreed to take the office merely with a view 
to accommodate his neighbors. The office at Pace's was 
in all respects similarly situated. These being the only 
cases in the whole Western country that the researches of 
my friend could find where Opposition men had received 
appointments from this Administration, could any thing 
prove more clearly how hard he was pressed, than to be 
compelled to refer to two such instances to prove impar- 
tiality 1 But even here the gentleman is mistaken. As 
he thought proper to bring up these two offices in a grave 
argument in Congress to prove that, in the appointment of 
officers, this Administration had no respect to party, I ad- 
dressed a note of inquiry to Mr. Kendall, and here is his 
answer: He says Col. Taylor was appointed postmaster 
on the day of , 18-Jtj, three years before the com- 
mencement of General Jackson's first term. 

[Here Mr. French rose to explain, and said that he had 
been led into the error by information which he had re- 
ceived in Clark county, where he was well acquainted; 
that he had not intentionally made the misstatement ; but, 
upon inquiry of Mr. Kendall, he had found that Mr. 
Thomas Edminson had also been appointed to a post of- 
fice, who was an opposition man ; so that, although he was 
mistaken as to Col. Taylor, yet he was right as to the 
number.] 



Mr. An. an proceeded. Sir, I am very sure that (he 
'•Element in reward to Col. Taylor's appointment was made 
under a mistake ; and I take this occasion, with great plea- 
sure, to bear witness that my colleague is incapable of ma- 
king an intentional misstatement on this or any other sub- 
ject. Yet it appears to me, in fairness, the gentleman ought 
to have stated that Mr. Edminson and Mr. Pace lived in 
the same house, at different times, and had been appointed 
for the same office, and that there was no Jackson man at 
the place to appoint. I am informed by Mr. Kendall that 
this office was discontinued last fall, because no one would 
have it. The whole income of the office, for the year 
1835, was $17. So that the only case that the diligent 
researches of my friend could find to prove that this Ad- 
ministration had reduced to practice, in good faith, the ad- 
vice which General Jackson gave to President Monroe, is 
the bestowal of a country post office, where no one lived 
but the postmaster, that was worth five dollars and sixty- 
one cents per annum ! ! ! being 33 per cent, on SI 7. As 
to Col. Taylor, the liberality was not in the appointment, 
but in the forbearance to turn him out : and this forbear- 
ance is owing to the fact that there is no one of " the par- 
ty" at Colebyville to take the place of the present incum- 
bent. 

Now that the office at Pace's has been abandoned, my 
colleague must turn his admiration to the signal forbear- 
ance practised towards Col. Taylor as the remaining mon- 
ument left to illustrate the liberality of this Administra- 
tion, and to prove that " the Chic/ Magistxatt of a great 
and powerful nation acts for the whole, and not for apart 
of the community." 

The only post office in Clark county that was profitable 
when " the party" came into power, was held by Mr. J. B. 
Duncan, a gentleman of the very first respectability, and per- 
fectly well qualified ; whose unoffending and amiable man- 
ners enabled him lu discharge the duties of the office to the 
entire satisfaction of all parties. Mr. Duncan, during the 
late war, shouldered his rifle, and fought in the battles of his 
country My colleague has known Air. Duncan intimate- 
ly for more than twenty years, and will not deny the state- 
ment I have made concerning him. He will go farther; he 
will agree that there is not a more worthy man in the coun- 
ty of Clark, nor one better qualified for the office, than 
Mr. Duncan. He will agree that there is not an officer in 
the United States who gave more universal satisfaction 
in the discharge of the duties of his office than did Mr. 
Duncan. But tMr. Duncan had committed the unpardon- 
able sin of having voted against the President, and for this 
sin he was punished by removal from office, and a worthy 
young man placed in tile office, as a reward for the parti- 
san services of influential relatives. 

Now that the committee have the whole of the tacts on 
the subject, they can judge how far the post office patron- 
age in tlie county of Clark was vised, regardlc, ■ qj party 
and party spirit. 

All others, except my colleague, had prudently passed in 
silence the letter of the President to the Tennessee Legis- 
lature, but he has thought proper to reproduce that, letter ; 
where General Jackson slates, in substance, that, if impor- 
t nit appointments continue to devolve on members of 
Congress, corruption will become the order of the day. 
Since which time, as President, he has appointed such a 
large number of members of both Houses to the highest 
offices, as to draw between five and six hundred thousand 
dollars from the Treasury lor their salaries. This incon- 
sistency between profession and practice being so glaring 
as to deter all other debaters from attempting to reconcile 
thein, did not in flic least stay the zeal of my colleague in 
his determination to defend the Administration at all points. 
And to get out of the difficulty, he said 

" Suppose, Mr. Chairman, General Jackson, in that letter, 
had suggested to tin.' Leej. lature of Tennessee an amendment t" 
the Constitution, by which the President -if the United Stales 
should be deprived ofhavingany voice in Mo- passage oflaws by 
i ,n ress, by which the power that now makes it his duty to 
approve and sign bills passed by Congress before they hive the 
force oflaws should be trtken away forever. Suppose, also, the 
General, after having ^iven this opinion, had been elected Pre- 
sident of the United States, and that he had refused to approve 



i n bills parsed by Congress, upon rile ground that lit had 
given to the Legislature of Tennessee the opinion that the Pre- 
sident ought not to have such power. Sir, in the case supposed, 
the President would have been impeached and removed from 
olliee, if lie had refused to approve and sign bills upon the 
ground staled, when, by the Constitution, it was his sworn duty 
to do so ; he would have deserved impeachment and removal 
from otiice. What, then, I ask, is the difference in principle 
between the case supposed and the case in the letter? The amend- 
ment suggested in the letter has never been made to the Con- 
solution. 

Thus spoke my colleague, and if he really can see any 
similitude between the case supposed and the profession 
in the letter, I will not stop to reason with him, as it is not 
probable that another person can be found who will be able 
to discover the most remote resemblance. 

The gentleman went on to say : 

" By the Constitution members of Congress are eligible to 
Executive appointments. The President is sworn 'to preserve, 
protect, and defend the Constitution, 1 as it is not as he would 
have it to be. If, then, the President had introduced in prac- 
tice what would have been a virtual amendment to the Consti- 
tution itself, he would have been guilty of the high crime of usur- 
pation." 

It is true the President cannot appoint any one who is 
ineligible; but I never heard before that eligibility created 
any obligation on the President to appoint members of Con- 
gress to office, and that his failure to do so would amount 
to the high crime of usurpation, for which he ought to be 
impeached and removed from olliee. But as my friend is 
in the secrets of the Cabinet, and if this constitutional in- 
terpretation is entertained there, and the President drew so 
largely on both Houses of Congress and the Treasury un- 
der the terrors of impeachment, it will certainly justify him 
in tin- eves of my colleague, and all others who understand 
the Constitution as he understands it. 

The gentleman contends that the President could not, 
with propriety, refuse to appoint members of Congress to 
office until the Constitution was changed so as to render 
them ineligible ! The President was of opinion that the 
practice of appointing members of Congress to high offices 
would destroy the purity and independence of the Legisla- 
ture, and make corruption the order of the day. Now my 
friend contends that the President was bound to continue 
a practice attended with those consequences until he was 
prevented by a change of the Constitution ! 

If every thing may with propriety be done to make cor- 
ruption the order of the day that is not prohibited by the 
Constitution, the Administration has a broad field to move 
in. It is probably the first time under the sun that the in- 
troduction of corruption into the admini itration of the Go- 
vernment was justified on the ground that it was not pro- 
hibited by the Constitution. The gentleman says the Pre- 
sident was sworn to support the Constitution ; and as mem- 
bers of Congress were eligible (o office under that instru- 
ment, it would have been a dangerous.assuinption of power 
on the part of the President lo have excluded them. If 
every body is to have otiice who is eligible, we shall have 
a goodly number of them. But I suppose the gentleman 
confines his notion of eligibility to '■ his party." It was 
not at all unconstitutional to proscribe and render ineligi- 
ble every man in and out of Congress in the United Slates 
who had not given in his adhesion at the footstool of power ; 
but it would have been very unconstitutional for the Presi- 
dent to have refused to appoint partisan members of Con- 
gress to office. If Ibis be enforcing the Constitution the 
President has fully administered, he has marched platoons 
out of both Houses of Congress, as was once observed by 
the gentleman from Ohio, (Mr < Iobwin.) There is some- 
thing, no doubt, very pleasant in this idea of administering 
flic Constitution to a member of Congress of the right faith 
who stands on the roll of promotion, for this kind of luck 
goes round so fast that it will nut take it long to reach every 
one. And when it comes to the turn of my colleague, I 
have no doubt that he will think it more constitutional 
thin ever. 

The gentleman eulogizes the Administration for the 
vast sums of money which it has expended in works of in- 
ternal improvement since the year 1829. Sir, how will 



10 



i ople of Kentucky feel when they know thai a mem- 
bei from that State rose upon this floor, and vaunted-the 
praises of this Administration for the profuse outpour of 
millions lor works of internal improvement, of all soils, in 
all parts of the U except Kentucky — when they recoi- 
led that they were told, in the midstof this profusion, tliattlic 
pitiful sum of $150,000 could not be spared for a Kentucky 
road until the national debt was paid ! 

It is amusing to hear a controversy in this House between 
two of "the party" upon the much agitated question, 
" what arc the principles of this Administration ?" From 
parts ol the Union where internal improvements are unpo- 
pular, we hear gentlemen praising the Administration for 
having subverted the whole system ; while equal praise is 
bestowed from sections of the Union where such Works are 
in favor, upon the orthodox opinions and lavish expendi- 
tures of tlie present Administration in the advancement of 
the great cause of public improvements. 1 do not know 
w In h swelled the note of admiration to the highest key, 
thcgeuileman from Virginia, (Mr. Garland,) because the 
President had overthrown, or my colleague, because he had 
upheld internal improvements. 

[Mr. Garland rose to explain, and said he did not in- 
tend to convey the idea that the President bad entirely 
crushed internal Improvements. He wished to be under- 
stood as saying the President had done much to overthrow 
such works, but that he had not gone the full length of the 
Virginia doctrine.] 

Mr. Allan proceeded. Sir, the explanation does not af- 
fect the sense of what 1 was saying. The gentleman from 
Virginia exults that so much has been done to destroy, 
while the gentleman from Kentucky exults that so much 
has been done to build up the system. 

My colleague says that the vast sums which this Ad- 
ministration has expended " on works of internal improve- 
ment are not local, but national in their cfraraclt r." In the 
true spirit of non-committal, in which school by the way he 
is not a very young scholar, my colleague said be would 
not undertake to say whether the Maysville road and the 
Louisville canal were local or national improvements. Now 
I regret to hear my friend say that the new roads in Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Maine, &c on which hundreds 
of thousands have been expended, were national, while he 
stands in a state of non-committal as to the nationality of a 
Kentucky road. I regret to hear the gentleman vindicat- 
ing the national character of improvements which this Ad- 
ministration has made at the mouths of creeks which he 
can with difficulty find on the maps, while he will riol say 
whether the Louisville canal, along which half (he com- 
merce of the whole Union passes, is local or national. 1 can 
very well remember a time when the gentleman and his po- 
litical friends in Kentucky thought the Maysville road a 
national improvement. When the news arrived in that 
State of the passage of the Maysville road bill through 
both Houses of Congress, the gentleman and his friends 
were filled with joy, and liny exultingly proclaimed from 
the housetops that the new Administration had already 
done more for Kentucky than ever had been done. And 
just in the flood tide of their rejoicings came another mail, 
and brought the veto, which did not at all abate their joy; 
they faced about, and said the veto was certainly the great- 
est act that ever was performed in the tide of lime, always 
excepting the battle of New Orleans. 

( >n the subject of the extravagant expenditures of this 
Administration the gentleman has had before him the tables 
in my speech for two months, and I am happy to find that 
he has not denied the accuracy of a single figure in them. 
1 proved that the expenditure from the 1th of March,1829, 
to the lib ol March, 1 S3 7 , will exceed the expenditure for 
the preceding eight years by the sum of $45,116,634 47. 
Not being able to find any inaccuracy in my tables, he seeks 
to evade their force by making calculations for different 
periods of time. But, after all his calculations, he docs 
not deny the increase of expenditure during this Adminis- 
tration of over forty-five millions of dollars ; which he has 
undertaken to excuse and defend, and to prove that an in- 
crease was unavoidable from the growth of the country. 

The gentleman has entirely changed over since the 
year IS'iS, when he was electioneering for the ofiice of 



electoi ; he told the People thai the expenses of the Fed- 
eral Government Were too high, a ml ought to be brought down 
to the scale of Jeffersonian economy. Now in I836 f whenthe 
gentleman's party is in the receipt of the spoils, he tells the 
People that so far from reducing, ii is necessary that the in- 
creasing expenditure should keep pace with the growth of the 
country. It now appears that what he told them in 1828 was 
a mistake. When I was listening to the gentleman's dis- 
courses in 1828 upon economy and reform, 1 little thought 
of ever standing by his side in this Hall, and seeing him 
the advocate of increasing the expenses of this Govern- 
ment in proportion to the increase of the population and 
resources of the nation. Did not the gentleman know in 
1828 that the numbers and wealth of the nation would in- 
crease 1 ! Why did he not then till the People that it would 
be necessary for Gen. Jackson's Administration to increase 
the public expenses in proportion to the growth of the na- 
tion ? Thecase being altered, alters the case. " The par- 
ty" was then seeking power, and to talk of reform and re- 
trenchment was the way to gel it. Now that they have 
power, the way to get spoils is to increase expenditure. 

The gentleman, with great apparent satisfaction, produ- 
ced the number of Indian treaties and the quantity of land 
purchased from them, as evidences of the diplomatic skill 
of this Administration. There is nothing new in this: ibe 
business of buying land from the Indians has been carrii d 
on for a long lime. But I agree that this Administration 
has introduced several new practices, which 1 regret my 
friend did not tell of while he was on the subject ; but as 
he has failed to do so, 1 will endeavor to supply what he 
has omitted. The treaties with the Indians for their lands 
were formerly made for the benefit of the country: now, 
much of the benefit is reserved as a means of patronage to 
reward partisans for political services. In almost all ofihe 
treaties with the Indians for cessions of their lands, large 
reservations are made to particular < Idols and headmen of 
the best parts of the territories ceded, in lie simple, with 
power to sin h chiefs and headmen lo sell the same to such 
persons as the President or his agents shall agree may 
buy. No one can purchase -against the consent ol the Pre- 
sident. So that the occupation of cheating (he Indians out 
of these reservations is exclusive. 

We have seen large portions of the public lands brought 
into conflict with the public-liberty, by being, under the 
forms of treaties, drawn into the vortex of governmental 
patronage. We have also seen eleven millions of acres, 
the common property of all the States, distributed by par- 
tial legislation to six of them ; whde the pioneers ol Ken- 
tucky, the founders of the great Western Empire, wdio 
bore the winter's cold and the summer's heat, and stood 
firm for a score of years in the front of a hundred battles, 
are most unjustly deprived of any share in (he public do- 
main, which is die fruit of their victories. 

The gentleman eulogized the A dministration, especially, 
forthc new system of removing the Indians. This novelty 
being a total departure from the benevolent policy of Wash- 
ington, and all of his successors, has to be tested by time 
and experience, betoro we can judge correctly of its wis- 
dom. This Administration has undertaken to move the 
numerous tribes to the same territory. There have alrea- 
dy been removed 31,348 Indians, and 72,1*1 are yet I" I" 
removed, making in all 103,529. What will be the result 
of placing so ninny tribes near together, with their fierce 
passions roused to the highest point of resentment, from 
having been forced to leave the land and graves of their fa- 
thers, where, by their union and their wrongs, they can 
learn their strength, time will show. 

In addition to the removed Indians, there are of the in- 
digenous tribes, within striking distance of the frontier, 
150,341; so that, altogether, there will be a body of 
253,870. We are bound to take part in all the wars that 
may occur among these numerous hostile bands, or which 
may occur between any of them and Mexico; for we have 
agreed by treaty to protect and defend the removed In- 
dians, and to prevent all the Indians within our borders 
from making war over the Mexican line. The fruit of 
this Indian-driving policy, so far, does not argue much 
good for the future. It has already cost us several mil- 
lions of money, and produced three wars. The Black 



11 



Hawk war coat $1,237,473; it is estimated that the Flo- 
rida war will ci I 85,000,000 , and what the Crick war 
will cost, we cannot tell. We lime this session appropri- 
ated 91,000,000 lii enable Gen. Gaines to keep peace on 
the frontier. We have lieen compelled to add two regi- 
ments of mounted dragoons to the regular aimy, and to 
pass a bill authorizing the President to raise a provisional 
army of 10,000 volunteers, and the commanding General 
has written for an increase of the regular army to 20,000 
men. The new relations of (he numerous tribes will, it is 
anticipated, produce a general Indian war. These are some 
of the fruits which have already ripened, by driving the In- 
dians to despair. In filly years, if this system does not 
cost a hundred millions of dollars and fifty thousand lives, 
we shall get oil' better than many anticipate. I hope for 
the best, and shall rejoice if all the good comes of it that 
its friends anticipate. 

The gentleman brought forward, also, a great many fo- 
reign treaties, and the amount of indemnity secured there- 
by, with as much exultation, as if the art of treaty-making 
was a very late discovery. If the honorable member had 
extended his diplomatic researches a little further back, and 
looked into the treaties with Spain, England, Denmark, 
and many others, he would have found a greater amount 
of indemnity secured to our citizens than that of which he 
boasts. 

To prove that we are passing rapidly from a paper mo- 
ney currency to one of the precious metals, the gentleman 
has produced the amount of coinage at the mint during the 
ditTerent years it has been in operation. Now, sir, I won- 
der if my friend does, in sober seriousness, intend to con- 
vey the idea to the People that the coinage at the mint in- 
creases the amount of gold in the country, or adds a cent 
to the national wealth 1 Docs he intend to give the Ad- 
ministration credit for working the mines'! This would 
be even worse than the credit claimed for the payment of 
the national debt. The amount of gold anil the payment 
of the public debt depended on the same cause — the indus- 
try of the People. In place of introducing a metallic cur- 
rency, this Government surrendered its constitutional con- 
trol over the subject into the hands of the Slates; and the 
national circulating medium being thereby destroyed, the 
necessity was imposed on the Stales of supplying its place in 
the best manner they could. And now, when banks are 
springing up as fast as mushrooms, when paper money is 
overspreading the land beyond any former example, my col- 
league gets up here, in defence of " his party," and holds 
up the tables of coinage, to show bis constituents that a 
golden era is about to commence, and that paper money is 
near its end ' 

Sir, after the gentleman has informed himself of the pre- 
sent, condition of the public money and the currency, 1 am 
astonished that he, in the character of a public sentinel, 
announces to the People that all is well. Does lie not 
know that the fact lias been announced by a distinguished 
leader in his party in public debate, that if the Land bill 
wrreti) pass, and the deposite banks were called on lo pay 
the public money, it would not only break the whole 
of them, but cause, an explosion in the whole paper sys- 
tem of the United States'! 

The gentleman has admitted that the public, money is 
nniler the control of no law; lie cannot be ignorant that 
it is loaned out, without interest, to persons of whom he 
has no knowledge. He knows that the notes of the depo- 
site banks will not circulate a day's journey from their 
vaults. He knows that there is a general depreciation ; 
tiiat there are broker's shops in every town and village; 
that a traveller across the Union has to submit to have his 
money shaved every day's ride. He knows thai the bro- 
ker will levy a heavy tax on the labor of the country while 
this miserable coMHi'tiim of the currency lasts. At this very 
time the notes on the New York banks are shaved in this 
city, and the notes issued here undergo the same operation 
there. In many places the People are compelled to pay 
five and six per cent, to procure notes on the United Slates 
Bank. 

In this condition of things, when the laboring man is 
continually subject to be robbed of bis labor, when the 
public money is placed in banks where it is admitted they 



will break if they arc called on to pay, I repeat that I .nil 
astonished that the gentleman's zeal in defeni e of bis parly 
should prevent, him from apprizing his constituents of the 
impending danger. 

The combined influence of our free institutions, the in- 
dustry and enterprise of the People, the introduction of la- 
bor-saving machinery, the establishment of manufactories, 
modern roads and steam power, and the high price of our 
products in Europe, have enabled this young gigantic nation 
to in ike such advances to wealth, and power, and prospe- 
rity, as to astonish the world. The great result ofthe com- 
bination of all these causes the gentleman, in the prevail- 
ing spirit of man-worship, ascribes to " the Government" 
and produces the tables of exports and imports to show 
the wonders which he has done for the country. The Peo- 
ple are nothing — our ruler is every thing. It is him who 
makes gold plenty, who pays oil' the national debt, who 
raisin our exports and imports, and regulates the amount 
ofthe cotton crop in the South. The gentleman seems 
perfectly willing to strip from the People the trophies of 
their industry, enterprise, and genius, and place them upon 
the standard ofthe chieftain under whom it is " a sufficient 
glory to save." 

The gentleman admits that the public money is now un- 
der the control of no law whatever, and has arraigned the 
Senate and the minority of this House for it. Has the 
gentleman forgotten who it was that look the public money 
out ot' tin 1 custody of the law? But he imputes fault to 
the Senate and the minority of this House for not passing a. 
new law to reclaim the public treasure. Iftbe gentleman 
had looked through this subject, it is the very last one that 
he would have alluded to. On the 24th of June, 1834, a 
bill passed this House lo regulate the deposite ofthe public 
money in certain State banks, which the minority of this 
House generally voted against, and which the Senate bud 
on the table. Now, as the honorable member thought 
proper to arraign others for not passing this bill, he ought 
to have given Ills opinion either for or against it. 1 am 
very sure he will never venture (o say that lull ought to 
have passed, for it contains some ofthe most objectionable 
provisions of any bill that was ever before Congress. But 
why did not the gentleman till all, while he was on the 
subject ! At the same session the Senate passed a bill on 
the same subject, which this I louse did not acton. And 
furl her, at the last session a bill was again introduced into 
this House, and so soon as the minority offered some salu- 
tary amendments which the majority did not like, and which 
they did not choose lo lake the responsibility of voting 
against, they refused to act further on the subject. So that 
the majority of Ibis House not only refused to pass the bill 
senl lure by the Senate in 1834, but refused to act on the 
bill of the last session, which they bad originated them 
selves. This session has nearly passed away, and the ma- 
jority has voted down repeated motions of the minority lo 
lake up the subject. So that the same party that tool, the 
money out of the custody of the old law, has refused to 
make a new law lo take' it out of the hands of those who 
hold it against all law. 

But the gentleman says that this Administration has 
showered blessings and benefits upon Kentucky in rich 
profusion. When he came to this part of his speech, 1 
listened with all anxiety to hear what kind of commodi- 
ties the blessings consisted of which bad been bestowed by 
tin. Administration upon K< nlucky, as I never had heard 
of any before. My friend, with all imaginable gravity, 
without moving a single muscle of his face in sympa- 
thy with the general smile that went round the Hall upon 
the occasion, announced that this Administration had ap- 
pointed to office Messrs. Amos Kendall, William T. Manx, 
Thomas P. Moore, Robt. I!. McAfee, and a long list of 
other Kent uekians! These are the blessings. A few men 
have got high offices and large sums of money. Plow this 
verifies the French saying — "that party excitement is the 
madness of the many for the benefit of the few." Here 
arc the benefits winch the People of Kentucky have deriv- 
ed from all the party conflicts, from all the divisions and 
heart-burnings among them, which have occurred in the 
last, eight, years. We yvere formerly taught that Govern- 
ment was instituted for the advantage of the People. But 



12 



mv friend eulogizes the Government for the benefits which 
it has bestowed on public officers. I complain that the Go- 
vernment will not expend a fair proportion of the public re- 
venue to assist the People of Kentucky to make improve- 
ments: that the Government will notdivhle ih money which 
is now idle in the Treasury for the benefit of the great body 
of the working men of Kentucky who have no office, and 
who desire no office ; and my friend says that my complaints 
on these subjects assail " his party;" and he answers me, as 
a full set-off to all the injury done the People by keeping 
them out of their just rights, that a large share of the 
spoils have been divided among the leading partisans in 
Kentucky. Does the gentleman suppose that Kentucky 
will be willing to compromise principle, and sell the rights 
of the People to buy offices for leading men 1 My friend 
has truly explained the principle of party action, the plain 
English of which is, the art of getting and keeping money 
ancloffice; and he gives a fair account of the loaves anil 
fishes which have fallen to the share of political aspirants 
in Kentucky, from the table of this Administration, while 
he has not been able to find a crumb that has fallen to the 
lot of the People. In taking a review of the blessings of 
this bountiful Administration, which have flowed in such 
copious streams into the pockets of the office-holders, the 
; .nil, -man rebukes me for complaining that the expenses of 
the Government have swelled up to such a height of extra- 
vagance. 

Sir, I will not go for the office-holders; 1 will stand 
by the laboring men of the nation, who are the hone and 
sinew of the land, whose industry is the source of your na- 
tional wealth and prosperity, and to protect which ought 
to be (lie first care of every patriot and statesman. 

When the general appropriation bill for the supply of 
the army of public officers with their large salaries was 
before toe House, amounting to between two and three 
millions of dollars, my friend from Virginia! Mr. Mercer) 
proposed an amendment to appropriate the surplus revenue 
for the use of the People. My colleague voted for the pre- 
lum- question, and cut oil" this amendment for the benefit 
ol the People, because, he said, if the appropriation for the 
People was placed in the bill that contained the appropria- 
tions for the officers, and the bill should be vetoed, it would 
cause an interregnum in the Government. Now, as the mo- 
ney is the main object, my friend is perhaps right in suppos- 
ing that an interregnum would occur if the pay was stopped; 
therefore my friend thought it best not to put the spoils of 
the officers in the same bill with the appropriation for the 
People, lest all might fall together. This was the very 
reason why I desired to see both provisions in the same 
bill. 1 have in the last seven years seen so many excesses 
committed on the rights of the People, and the ancient in- 
stitutions of the country, by a. fal stall-fed Government, that 
I woull be willinig io starve it until I could count its ribs, 
and until it consented to give up the public money which 
it holds contrary to law, and divide the same among the 
States. I will here leave my colleague, with undimin- 
ished good will, and we shall part with very different feel- 
ings. While he is rejoicing at the (lush condition of the 
p ickets of the political leaders of his party in Kentucky, 
1 am left in regret, because his " party"' has defeated the 
passage of every law for the benefit of the People of Ken- 
t iky. I leave him, sheltered under the aegis of power, se- 
cure as one of its defenders, and will proceed myself in its 
t'a.e, sure of its vengeance, to point out its abuses, and ar- 
ray its usurpations before the country. In this I oc- 
cupy my old position Being indebted to the People for 
ilo political honors which they have conferred upon me ill 
the last twenty-five years ; having been so long sustained 
by their firmness and intelligence against all the as-. mils 
of power, against all the detraction of enemies, 1 feel 
bound by the highest sense of duty, and the deepest feel- 
in | ■ of gratitude, to continue, al every personal hazard, to 
defend their constitutional rights. I have never sought 
office under Executive power. State or National ; I' am 
under no obligation and owe no allegiance to any earthly 
authority but that of the People. 

In supporting the proposition to reduce the expen-os of 
the Government, I shall urge the considerations which 
connect it with power and patronage more than those 



which relate to economy. 1 would lather comment 
ivork of cutting down Executive power by rendering mem 
hers of Congress ineligible to Executive appointments; by 
abridging the veto power and the power of removal, and by 
disconnecting the Executive and the Treasury and the 
public press; but, as the opportunity of voting on these 
propositions is now denied me, I will agitate the question of 
the curtailment of power in aneffort to reduce expenditure. 

I shall proceed to show how retrenchment will reduce 
power, and in what manner it will have a tendency to 
change the Government back from a Government of men 
to a Government of laws. Your army of public officers 
draw such enormous sums from the Treasury that they 
would be able at any time of emergency, by devoting fif- 
teen or twenty per cent, on the amount of their salaries, to 
raise a fund sufficiently large to enable them to distribute 
thousands to carry elections. The reduction of these ex- 
orbitant salaries would certainly to that extent impair the 
piowcr of the General Government which is thus brought 
into conflict with the freedom of the elective franchise. It 
is high time to admonish these officers, by reducing their 
pay, to leave elections to the People, and stay in their 
offices and attend to their duties. The members of Con- 
gress, when they see the general tendency to extravagance, 
and the evil effects of it, ought to be willing to commence 
with themselves, and set the example, by reducing their 
own compensation. In this way, they will afford the most 
convincing proof of their desire of carrying the Government 
back to republican simplicity and frugality. In showing a 
willingness to share the fate of others, they can, with a 
greater probability of success, urge a general system of re- 
trenchment and reform in the public expenses. If we pass 
the amendment which I have offered, it will reduce the ex- 
penses of the Government more than a million of dollars 
annually ; and, if we are to have as many wars as the gen- 
tlem ,n at the head of the Committee of Ways and Means 
has discoursed about, they will furnish additional reasons 
for saving money. I hope all the officers of the Fedi rftl 
Government, from the President down, will be willing to 
give up a part of their salaries to pay the poor soldiers fur 
lighting our battles. 

Bui there is still another move important view of the 
subject. The salaries of the federal officers are so far 
above those paid by the Slates, that it will not be possible 
for the State Governments to maintain their proper influ- 
ence and weight in the Confederacy. This central mag- 
nificent power rises up with honors and emoluments that 
so far overshadow the States, that they are sunk into pro- 
vincial obscurity. This central agency contains the I ' 
sources of attraction. Hence the thronging thousands 
that continually crowd the streets of this capital, to solicit 
power and money at the President's palace. Here is one 
great source of the President's dangerous power — the. 
vast multitude over whose minds and freedom of thought 
he exercises control; for absolute submission to all I he 
requirements of parly is known to be the price of suc- 
cess. 

To cure these evils, to restore and build up the power of 
the States, Io revive the independence of thought and ac- 
tion, lei us cut down federal honors and federal salaries 
to the size of those of the States; let us make official em- 
ployments about as profitable as the common pursuits of 
life, then men will not be tempted to quit the service of 
the States, and Ihe independence and freedom of private 
stations, and become courtiers al the footstool of federal 
power. 

Sir, we have raised a portion of our public officers too 
far above the People. They have been elevated to a point 
of exaltation where human vanity becomes giddy, and for- 
getful of the rightful source of power. Our head men, up- 
on their six thousand dollars per annum^fc their eagerness 
to adopt the manners of European aristocracy, have forgot- 
ten the plain republican style of living of American citi- 
zens. The. President and five of his home ministers re- 
I'.eive as much as the Governors of the twenty-four Slates. 
The twenty-four Governors preside over the concerns of 
fifteen millions of people, their duties extending to all Ihe 
complicated relations of "life; while the duty of this cen- 
tral agency is restricted to general superintendence. Vet 



Li 



ihe amount of compensation seems to be increased in pro- 
portion as the labor is less. Five home and one foreign 

minister receive more than the chief justices of the twen- 
ty-four Stales; yet the labor of these six ministers is but 
a drop in the ocean in comparison to the duties performed 
by the twenty-four judges. The President alone receives 
as much as the Governors of sixteen of the States. 

It appears, from the secret history of the debates in the 
Federal Convention, that Doctor Franklin was of opinion 
'" that the Executive should receive no salary, stipend, or 
emolument fur the devotion of his time to the public service } 
but that his expenses should be paid." The great experi- 
ence and sagacity of Franklin enabled him to foresee what 
lias already come to pass, that, if a princely support was 
provided for the President, an example would be set in his 
style of living which would be followed by all subordinate 
officers, until extravagance and degeneracy would ruin the 
public service. President AVashington seems to have en- 
tertained the same views; he refused to receive any com- 
pensation for his services above his expenses; and his 
plain, republican style of living is well described in the 
memoirs of the celebrated Chateaubriand, who visited Wash- 
ington in 1791. He says : :t A little house, of the English 
construction, resembling the houses in its neighborhood, iras 
the palace of the President of the United States : no guards, 
no valets. I knocked ; a servant girl opened the door," tf-c. 
How delightful and refreshing it is to turn from the scenes 
around us, to contemplate the profound forecast and philo- 
sophical views of Franklin, and the citizen-like simplicity 
of the example left us by Washington ! How striking is 
the contrast ! Now, a splendid palace towers in regal 
magnificence far above many of those inhabited by the 
monarchs of Europe; and the President's hospitality is as 
sumptuous as the pampered epicures who doze away a 
worthless existence at the courts of Asiatic despots could 
wish. This palace, according to the notorious east room 
letter, was, in the administration of Mr. Adams, furnished 
in such splendid style as to shock the sensibility of a repub- 
lican. Yet this reforming Administration, not satisfied 
with the costly decorations which were then the theme of 
democratic denunciation, has expended the unexampled 
sum of forty-five thousand dollars in the purchase of new 
furniture, which throws all that preceded it far into the 
shade. In addition to this, the President receives an an- 
nual salary of twenty-live thousand dollars a year. In 
attempting to make a President, we have made a monarch 
in fact. 

In all the forms of government that have ever been tried, 
the Executive power has been found too strong, and, in the 
long run, has swallowed up all other powers. It is taking 
the direction here which was anticipated by many at the 
adoption of the Constitution; and now, in the bitterness of 
their disappointment, the most ardent of the original triends 
of a strong Executive see fast accomplishing the predic- 
tions of Patrick Henry, and many other sages of his day. 
Among all the votaries of liberty, it is an uncontested 
maxim that the superstructure of free government rests upon 
the division of its powers into three independent distinct 
departments. Mr. Jefferson's definition of despotism is the 
union of all the powers ofGovemment in the same hands. 
Yet history furnishes no example in any free Government 
where the Executive power has made such advances of 
usurpation upon the other departments in so short a time as 
in the United States. 

A brief contrast of the powers claimed and exercised by 
the Executive at the commencement of the Government, 
and now, will make this manifest. At first he claimed the 
power to remove public officers for misconduct. Now he 
removes them for a free exercise of the right of suffrage. 
At the commencement of the Government it was held to 
be a fundamentajjarinciple that the purse and the sword 
should be kept s^pate ; now they are in the same hands. 
For forty years Congress exercised the right of conducting 
the operations of the Treasury through bank agency. But 
now, while the President denies to Congress the right to 
establish a National Bank, he appoints himself an Execu- 
tive bank, composed of an association of Slate banks, to 
conduct the fiscal affairs of the Government ; so that the 
long-contested legislative power to establish bank agency 



for 1 1m Treasury has practically passed into the hands o€ 
the Executive, and he has established the most dangerous 
money monopoly in the world. Ever since the adaption of 
the Constitution it was held that Congress possessed the 
money power, and had authority to regulate the currency 
and fix the standard of value, until the President seized 
the public money, and issued decrees through the Treasury 
to regulate the currency. The power that regulates the 
currency is a power over the commerce, agriculture, and 
manufactures of the country. The power that can raise 
or depress the currency can tax, without limit, the labor of 
the People. It is customary in all the States to hold annual 
examinations into the condition of their treasuries. It has 
been the custom for committees of Congress to examine the 
National Treasury; but now this new Executive bank, 
this many-headed monster, shrinks with alarm from all 
scrutiny; and such is already its influence, that every pro- 
position to examine its concerns has been voted down. 
This House will not trust its own eyes to open the doors 
and look at the actings and doings in this great political 
gambling shop. It is now plain that Congress will adjourn 
and leave its deeds shrouded in the darkness of midnight. 

The veto, as formerly understood, was a negative power 
given to the President to enable him to defend his depart- 
ment from encroachment. Now it lias become the active 
principle of legislation. The President takes the responsi- 
bility, seizes the public money, appoints a National Bank 
agency for the Treasury } and issues decrees to regulate the 
currency, and continues to exercise these high sovereign 
functions of legislation until two-thirds of Congress shall 
be found (which will never be the case while he can ap- 
point the members to office) to take these powers out of his 
hands. It is thus, by the exercise of the veto, that the au- 
thority of Congress has become powerless ; and the Execu- 
tive has acquired dominion over the property, the labor, 
and the commerce of the United States, by assuming the 
power over the Treasury and the currency. 

In tracing the advances of Executive power, nothing is 
more striking, than the dominion which it has acquired over 
the public press. The press isadmitted to be the most formi- 
dable political engine of modern times. During the high 
andpahny days of true principles, the press was the faith- 
ful channel oftruth — the palladium of liberty. The press 
then fought the battles of the Constitution ; because it 
was paid by the community, who have not, and who do not 
desire office. Now we have a press in the service of the 
Government, organized and regulated by disciplined ambi- 
tion, and gorged and fattened out of the public crib. There 
are, at this time, in the pay of the Government, more than 
one hundred editors of newspapers scattered throughout 
the United States. There will be paid to one press at the 
seat of Government near one hundred thousand dollars per 
annum out of the public Treasury. 

There is not in Russia or Turkey a press under more 
despotic control. If it were to insinuate that its maslerwas 
not infallible, or refuse to affirm that the most glaring 
abuses of power were right, or deny the guilt of every pub- 
lic defaulter, even if the proof were as clear as the mid-day 
sun ; if it should suggest a doubt as to the election of the 
chosen successor, it would not only lose the bread upon 
which it is fed out of the public granary, but would be over- 
whelmed by party vengeance. So completely is the in- 
dependence of the press bought up, that we would as soon 
look to seethe waters of the Potomac roll back to their 
sources as to see this press tell the plain truth to the Peo- 
ple. It is a part of the daily duty for which this press is 
paid, to misrepresent and traduce every member of Congress 
who opposes the encroachments of Executive power. Such 
a press undertakes not only to judge of the conduct of the 
People's representatives here, but to give evidence to the 
People against them. Such a witness paid such a sum for 
his evidence would not, in a court of justice, in a contest 
between two citizens for one dollar, receive credit from any 
honest judge or juror. It is mainly through this pension- 
ed engine that tbe power of the Federal Government is 
brought into conflict with the freedom of elections. It is 
paid out of the People's money to uphold and advocate eve- 
ry candidate for office who is known to be on the side of 
power, and to defame and vilify every one who is on the 



14 



side of the country- Thousands of honest people have 
been deceived by this press, not knowing it was paid for 
every word that it uttered; and, under this deception, they 
have cast many faithful patriots from theit service. 

The important clause in the Constitution which confers 
upon the President the right to appoint public officers " by 
and with th&advice and consent of the Senate," was scru- 
pulously adhered to in the days of Washington ; but of 
late we have seen persons appointed to office upon the res- 
ponsibility of the Executive, after their rejection by the 
senate. We have seen the most important offices kept 
vacant for years, to the detriment of the public interest, 
bocause the person- firsl nominated were not confirmed. We 
have seen an effort made to have the journal of the Senate 
destroyed, which recorded for the benefit of the present 
generation, and for the benefit of posterity, a signal in- 
stance of Executive usurpation. Of all the wounds which 
have been made on the guards of liberty, none is more 
alarming than that which has been indicted on the Senate. 
The hue and cry has been raised against that body, and 
rung along all the lines of patronage, because it made a 
stand against the encroachments which were demolishing 
its constitutional rights. We have seen Executive power 
everted with lamentable success in changing this constitu- 
tional check into an effective auxiliary. 

The gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Bei.1.) remarked 
that none of our early writers on the dangers of Executive 
power foresaw that the Post Office Department would be- 
come the most extensive and dangerous means of patron- 
age; neither did they anticipate that the public money 
would be used to subsidize the press ; which exercises 
more influence on public opinion than even the Post Office 
with its thirty thousand dependents and agents scattered 
throughout the United States; but, both taken together, 
make the most formidable and dangerous political engine 
that exists in the world. 

From this rapid sketch of the present outline of Execu- 
tive power, it is evident that there is but one man in the 
Republic. Every other office, every other interest is lost in 
the shoreless ocean of his power. Every officer, State or 
national, from the highest down to the lowest, is elected 
in reference to his opposition or adherence to the Presi- 
dent or the candidate for the Presidency. This is not 
wonderful, because the President does, in fact, hold in his 
hand the Executive and Legislative power of the country. 
The expanded dimensions of Executive power leave no room 
for liberty to breathe in. The office is too high, too attractive 
for human weakness. The temptation to arrive at it is too 
great for human virtue. In the contests lor this office the 
country will be sacrificed, and liberty overthrown. Be- 
hold the formidable array of power that is iiuw brought lo 
bear on the Presidential election; the whole patronage of 
the Federal Government; the forty thousand public offi- 
cers; the machinery of the Post Office Department; a 
pensioned press ; the numerous army among whom the 
public money is loaned out ! 

Every aged man can remember when the Executive 
powi i was confined within the limits of the Constitution, 
th.it the Presidential elections werequiet, orderly, and fair; 
but now the whole Country is convulsed in tin' scramble 
which is to divide the offices and money among those who 
• ucceed in placing their chief in possession of more power 
lli hi is exercised by any of the modern kings in the south 
of Europe. If the morals of the people were made of ada- 
mant, they would in lime In- worn away by the perpetual 
stream of corruption, in which unchastened ambition will 
evi : attempt to swim to this highest prize of distinction — the 
Presidential office. The experience of all other free na- 
tions has proven that elections are the point in the fortress 
oflibcrty where usurpation and corruption make their first 
attack. The arts of political aspirants, who were willing 
to sell their souls and betray their country to satiate unholy 
ambition, have caused elections every where to result in 
cnii option. 

I will brine forward a lew illustrations from Roman his- 
tory. In the pure days of the Republic, the Roman magis- 
trates were fairly elected by the qualified voters j men of 
the highe-i t.denls. the most approved experience and ster- 
ling integrity, were called into the public service Such 



public servants conducted Rome to the highest elevation of 
power ami glory that hasever been reached by any nation. 
But at last i he destroyer came, and breathed the breath of 
corruption on elections. I will read some passages from 
Adams's Roman Antiquities. Under the head of candi- 
dates for office, the historian says: 

" On the market-days they (the candidates) came into the 
assembly of the pp-.ple- and took their ! tatton on rising ground, 
whence they might be seen by all. * * * When they went 
down to the < ';i i.i [hi M.i ri in- at certain times, they were attend- 
ed by their friends and depi ndents. * * They had i i 

likewise to divide mi y among 'In- people. * * * There 

were also persons to bargain with the people for their votes. 
* and others in whose hands the money promised was depo- 
sited. Cae at pillaged the wealth of the provinces to spend it 
among the citizens of Rome, and ■ ave bis rapine an air of gene- 
rosity. 

Could an actual description convey a more distinct idea 
of what is passing here befoie our eyes than is to be found 
in the above extracts from Roman history 1 

I will read a passage from Gibbon, to illustrate the pro- 
gress of corruption in Roman elections : 

"The Praetorian bands maintained thai the mixed multitude 
that thronged tin- Btreete of Rome were notthe real people; that 
they were alike destitute of spirit and property. 

" That the defenders of the Stale, trained tolhe eiercii t 
arms and virtue, were the genuine representatives of the people, 
and Lest entitled to elect the military chief of the Republic.' 

And after they had murdered the Emperor Pertina.v. 
" they ran out upon the ramparts, and with a loud voice 
proclaimed that the Roman world was to be disposed of to 
the best bidder, at public auction." 

The candidates for the Imperial power at the foot of the 
ramparts carried on the contest. 

II Sulpicianus promised a donative of five thousand drachoif 
(above £ 160) to each soldier. Didius Julianus, eager forthe 
prize, reseat once to the sum of six thousand two hundred and 

fifty drachms, or upwards of £200. The gates of the camp were .. 

instantly thrown open to the purchaser, and he was declared 
Kinju mi-. They placed their new sovereign, whom they served 
and despised, in lie- centre of their ranks, surrounded him on 
every side with their shields, and conducted him in close order 

of battle to the Senate I se, which, after he had filled with 

armed soldiers, the new Emperor expatiated oo the freedom of 
his election." 

Such is the result of Roman elections. Such the man- 
ner in which Executive patronage was brought into conflict 
with the freedom of elections in the most renowned nation 
of antiquity. In our own country we have seen the office- 
holders attempting lo dispose of the Presidency who have 
no belter claims to speak in the name of the people than -* 
had the Roman cohorts. In place of bidding £'.'00 to each 
voter, we have seen the revenues and offices of the country 
bid for the Presidential office to be divided out as lawful 
spoil among those who would bring the greatest number of 
votes to the polls. Our elections arc taking the direction 
they did in Home, and will end in the same way if we do 
not reduce the power of the President, and thereby take 
away the temptation to betray and corrupt the country to 
get the office. No mailer what the form or the name may 
be, the very instanl that any Government is organized, two 
distinct interests in society are formed — the interest of the 
rulers, on the one hand, and the interest of the people on 
the other. It is the interest of those among whom the hon- 
ors and the revenue.- are divided, lo form combinations and 
a "parti/ ;" to keep in their hands these honors and reve- 
nues, and to transmit them to their relatives and friends. It 
is the interest ofthe great body of the people to have a cheap 
and a pure Government, and that it should be administered 
by able and pure men. It is the interest ofthe office-hold- 
ers to have an extravagant GovernmerUjgafcecause they res p 
I t.e beni lit "i extravagance, And il >Wr<~' interest ot the 
head rulers, in place of having able, honest men in office, 
to have such as will agree to be " mere instruments." 

The history of nations is nothing but a narrative of 
the conflicts between these two separate interests of ru- 
lers ami people. On the one side then' is union, discipline, 
art, and intrigue; on the other, honesty, unsuspecting con- 
fiding confidence. The result ei ery where has been the 



15 



triumph of the office-holders ; and, in the end, in all other 
nations, they have made themselves the people's masters, 
and become a separate hereditary order. 

The long-contested question, and which is committed to 
the Americans for final decision, is, whether the People 
can maintain their free Government against the perpetual 
War that will be waged upon it by their own officers 1 I 
call upon the People to behold the formidable array of 
power with which they have to contend. Forty thousand 
public officers — a pensioned press — thirty-five depos ite 
banks — a subservient post office— the multitude among 
whom the public money is loaned out — all combined to 
keep the People out of their money, and to control the Go- 
vernment, constitute a force more terrible than an open 
army with banners; because it advances secretly through 
by-ways, through the vaults ofbanks; it crawls through .ill 
the channels of corruption; and while all appears fair on 
the surface, while the people, active in industry and en- 
terprise, are moving rapidly on to wealth and apparent 
prosperity, the subtle poison of despotism is infecting the 
vitals of the bod}' politic. 

In the contemplation of our public affairs, there is no as- 
pect of them to be more regretted than the selfish persona] 
character which the struggles for the Presidential office 
have communicated to party. Our early parties were form- 
^ ed upon a difference of principle, each contending for the 

country, for the whole country, for the security of liberty, 
for the preservation of the Constitution. Ambition was 
then a noble and elevated principle, which identified its 
success and elevation with the success and elevation of the 
Republic. The party now is not distinguished by the 
profession or the practice of any known system of princi- 
ples. The art of getting and keeping money and office, 
and transmitting them to friends, is the principle of action. 
No matter what are the principles of an individual, if he 
will labor in the vocation of office-getting and money- 
getting, he is taken into full fellowship and communion 
> with the party. Our early patriots and statesmen rose to 

eminence by the possession and exercise of talents, expe- 
rience, and virtue — by eminent services rendered to the 
country. Now, love of country is changed to devotion to 
men : man-worship is found to be a more ready road to 
success than devotion to the country. 

The only avenue now open to honorable distinction is 
submission to power. This principle of party action, upon 
which success now depends, is enforced upon the observ- 
ance of all the members of the parly, by both the precept 
and example of the person who now holds the second rank 
in the Government, and is aiming at the first. Tie prides 
himself upon, and in thespiritof exultation proclaims that 
]g *' To have servtd under such a Chief at such a time, and 

1 to have won his confidence and esteem, is a sufficient 
' glory ; and of that, thank God t my enemie cannot <!■ / I i\ i 
; mc." 

The annals of the nineteenth century do not furnish an 
example, in the despotisms of Asia, of such an instance of 
the worship of one man by another. The success of this 
flattery, when it is recollected that it won the President y, 
for, if that individual succeeds, no one will doubt that he 
will owe his success to the favor of the exalted personage 
under whom u was a sufficient glory to serve. Tin glory 
is not in having served his country, hut in having served 
under a chief. The glory is not derived from services 
rendered Rome, but from the honor ofhaving served under 
Cesar. Here we have, in bold relief, the principle and ex- 
ample of the leader of the party. All aspirants will take 
the hint from this example of success, and must make their 
way to office and money by the same means. Under tin's 
system all high and honorable ambition must perish ; all 
hope of rising to eminence, by the possession of eminent 
qualifications, will expire; and servile adulation and man- 
worship will beeAethe order of the day. Federal power, 
as it now exists, is built upon this compact; all subordi- 
nates are to sustain it in all ot'its courses, right or wrong ; 
and, in return, it is to throw the se<j;is of its protection over 
each member of the party, no odds what may be his official 
acts of omission or commission. If the spirit of the times 
will tolerate and justify such an example in a candidate 
t\>y the first office, it will of course be followed by every one 



who expects to reach the throne by the aid of government- 
al patronage. 

We have already come to the point where every candid 
man will admit that the next Presidential election, so far 
as one of the candidates is concerned, depends on the wish 
of the present Chief Magistrate. Did any American expect 
to live to see such a wonder 1 Did any one imagine that 
an American President would so soon acquire the power 
to appoint Ins successor % Is it in the constitution of na- 
ture that man must every where seek a master, and crouch 
to power 1 Must the right of suflrajre every where be- 
come a mere shallow, and the voter a mere machine ? Are 
nations every where destined to become estates in the 
hands oC rulers, to be transferred by hereditary descent as 
property from father to sonl 

The powerful phalanx of public officers, printers, and 
money borrowers, enlisted in this Presidential canvass, 
are in some respects in the same condition that Bona- 
parte's army was previous to his election as Emperor of 
France. Public proclamation w-as then made that every 
soldier might freely vole according to his wish; but at the 
same time a secret order was issued that every one who 
did not vote for the Emperor should be shot. Here it is 
said the public officers and the borrowers of the public 
money and the printers are free. But it is well under- 
stood that every one who does not vote and get others to 
vote for the already appointed sureessor shall, not be shot, 
but, if an officer, be cashiered and turned out, and, if a mo- 
ney borrower, must pay up. Executive power must be re- 
duced. The confederacy that has the public money, and 
is fattening upon the labor of the People, must be compel- 
led to disgorge their ill-gotten spoils. My observation here 
for the last five years has convinced me that a republican 
government cannot be preserved unless it can be made a 
cheap government. Liberty and frugality have never been 
and never will be long separated. Extravagance naturally 
leads to corruption, and corruption to despotism. 

Sir, flic adoption of the amendment which I have offer- 
ed to this bill, by which the expenses of the Government 
would be reduced more than a million of dollais annually, 
would be attended with the most salutary consequences. 
While it would purify the Government, and reduce the 
power and patronage of the Executive, it would rebuke 
the public officers for intermeddling with elections, and 
bring them to a proper sense of their dependence on the 
People. It would revive the power and influence of the 
Slates, check the spirit of federal usurpation, and cut off the 
temptation that menarenow under of selling their freedom 
of thought for office and large sums of money. It would 
give the Government a direction back to the republican 
simplicity o\' the days o[' Washington and Franklin. It 
would teach power lo tremble in its strongholds, and re- 
establish the ascendency of public opinion. 

Being solemnly and deeply convinced that extensive 
abuses exist in the administration of the Government- 
that power is advancing with the rapid, strides of usurpa- 
tion upon the free institutions of our country — that the 
precious heritage of our freedom is in danger; believing 
that the only remedy for these evils is to be found in the 
public reason— I have appealed to that reason, and call 
upon my countrymen to rally in defence of that liberty 
which they hold at tin price of the blood of their fathers. 



The following is the proposition of retrenchment offered 
by Mr. Allan ; 

And be if fur I In r enacted. That from and a fie r the pa 
of this act, instead of the compensation now allowed !>\ law, [here 
shall !"■ paid to the within named ofii< era the following i urns per 
annum : To the Vice Pre: idenl ol the United States, four thou- 
sand dollars ; 1" each of the Secretaries of Stale, Tn a: my, War, 
and Navy, fourtnousand dollars ; to the Attm ney I '<< ni I al, three 
thousand dollars ; to the Postmaster * Jeneral, four thousand dol- 
lars; to each el* the Assistant Postmasters General, one Iho'u- 
sand eight hundred dollars ; to each of die Comptrollers ol die 
Treasury, two thousand dollars ; to each of the Auditors of the 
Treasury, i wo thousand dollars ; to the Solicitor of the Treasury, 
two thousand dollars ; to the Ri r of the Treasury, I wo thou- 

sand dollars; lo the Treasurer, i\\" thousand dollai ■ ; to the 
Commissionei ut' Indian Affaii , two thousand dollars; to the 



16 



' Ipmmlssioner of the General Land OiTice, two thousand dollars; 
and that there bo deducted from the compensation now allowed 
by law to the clerks in the Departments of State, Treasury, War, 
ami Navy, including those in the General Land OHiee, at the 
rate of twenty-five per centum per annum : Provided, No de- 
duction shall be made so as to reduce the salary of any clerk in 
said Departments to a less sum than eight hundred dullars per 
annum. 

That from all officers of the customs, by whatever name de- 
signated, or in whatever manner employed, there shall be de- 
ducted from the compensation now allowed them by law, at the 
rate of twenty-five per centum per annum : in no case shall the 
compensation by salary, fees, or otherwise, be permitted to ex- 
ceed, "of a collector, three thousand dollars per annum ; of sur- 
veyors and naval officers, two thousand five hundred dollars per 
annum; and of weighers, gnngors, markers, appraisers, and all 
others connected with the collection of the customs, two thousand 
dollars per annum. 

That from all officers connected with the system of the public 
lands, either as surveyors general, registers, receivers, or 
clerks, there shall be deducted from the compensation now 
allowed them bylaw, at the rate of twenty-five per centum per 
annum. 

That from all the clerks in the General Post Office, deputy 
postmasters, their assistants, qi clerks, there shall be deducted 
from the compensation now allowed them by law, at the rate of 
twenty- five per centum per annum, and in n^ case, by the rent- 



ing of boxes in their offices, or otherwise, shall their compensa- 
tion exceed three thousand dulluis per annum. 

That from all persons connected with the Indian deportment, 
as superintendents, agents, sub-agents, interpreters, agents for 
removals, commissioners, or in whatever other manner employ- 
ed theri-iii, there shall be deducted from the compensation now 
allowed them by law, ur regulation, at the rate of twenty-fire 
per centum per annum. 

That to the members of the Senate, House of Representatives, 
and Delegates from Territories, instead ofthe compensation now 
allowed them by law, tht-y shall receive six dollars per day, and 
six dullars f»r evi-ry twenty miles' travel to and from the seat of 
Government. 

To the Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House of 
Representatives, instead ofthe compensation now allowed tbem 
by law, each two thousand dollars per annum \ and lliero shall 
be deducted from the compensation now allowed to each of their 
assistant clerks, at the rate of twenty-five per centum per an- 
num. 

And that from and after the expiration of the present Presi- 
dential term, the salary of the President of the United States 
shall be fifteen thousand dollars per annum. 

And be it further enacted, That the custom-house in the city 
of New York shall not cost above the sum of five hundred thou- 
sand dollars; and any law appropriating an amount above thai 
sum lu that object shall pe 3 and the same is hereby, repealed 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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